vq5 


. 


THE    SOCIAL    SIDE 

OF   THE    REFORMATION 

IN    GERMANY 


BY 
E.     BELFORT     BAX 

AUTHOR  OF  l<  THE  STORV  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION,"  "  THE  RELIGION  OF 

SOCIALISM,"   "THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIALISM,"  "HANDBOOK  OF  THE 

HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY,"  ETC.,  ETC. 

PART  I:    GERMAN  SOCIETY  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

PART  II:    THE  PEASANTS   WAR  IN  GERMANY:    1525-15*6 

PART  III:    RISE  AND  FALL   OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 


LONDON 

SWAN    SONNENSCHEIN    &   Co.,    LIM 

NEW   YORK:    THE   MACMILLAN   CO 

1903 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF  THE 
ANABAPTISTS 


BY 
E.     BELFORT     BAX 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  STORV  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION,"  "  THE  RELIGION  OF 

SOCIALISM,"   "THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIALISM,"  "  HANDBOOK  OF  THE 

HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


LONDON 

SWAN    SONNENSCHEIN   &  Co.,    LIM 

NEW   YORK:    THE   MACMILLAN   CO 

1903 


PREFACE 


THE  present  volume,  the  third  of  the  series,  concludes  our 
studies  of  the  social  side  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany. 
Anabaptism  was  essentially  a  German  product  and  did  not 
take  root  in  the  Latin  countries.  But  the  importance  of  this 
great  movement  in  all  lands  possessing  a  strong  Teutonic 
element,  not  even  excluding  England,  has  been  little  realised 
by  the  average  historian.  The  latter  has  been  inclined  for 
the  most  part  to  dismiss  this  tremendous  upheaval  of  the 
disinherited  classes  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  a 
few  paragraphs  of  abuse  and  often  misrepresentation.  We 
may  regard  Anabaptism  as  the  culminating  effort  of  mediaeval 
Christian  Communism,  which  saw  in  the  communisation  of 
worldly  goods  (understanding  by  this  the  economic  products 
designed  for  consumption)  the  farthest  goal  of  man's  social 
existence.  The  modern  notion  of  the  socialisation  of  the 
means  of  production  was  not  as  yet  thought  of,  as  it  was  not 
even  conceivably  possible  at  the  then  stage  of  economic 
evolution. 

Among  the  various  authorities  on  the  subject  of  the  Ana- 
baptist movement  which  have  been  consulted  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  present  volume  may  be  especially  mentioned: 

(i)  Of  first-hand  sources  the  "  Gcschichtsbiicher  der  Wieder- 
taiifcr  in  Oestreich-Ungarn"  edited  by  Dr.  J.  Beck;  the 
•' ^cite  /.eitung  von  den  Wiedcrtaiifcnschcn  Sect"  1528;  various 
original  documents  published  as  an  appendix  in  Cornelius's 
work,  in  Ludwig  Keller's  history,  inBouterwek's  "  ZitrLitteratiu- 
und  Geschichtc  der  Wicdcrtaiijer"  etc.,-  the  "  Geschichtsquellcn 
des  Bisthums  Minister"  issued  by  the  "  Verein  Jiir  Vater- 
landischc  Gesclnchte  nnd  Altertitmskiuidc"  especially  the  volume 
containing  Gresbeck's  account  of  the  Miinster  Kingdom  of 
God  and  the  confessions  of  the  Miinster  Anabaptists  obtained 
under  torture,  etc.,  also  the  volumes  of  Kerssenbroick's 


VI  PREFACE. 

"  Anabaptistici  Furoris  Monasterium  Inclitam  Westphalia  Mctro- 
polim  Evertentts  Historica  Narratio"  published  in  the  same 
series;  in  addition,  of  course,  to  such  publications  of  the 
Anabaptists  themselves  as  are  still  obtainable. 

(2)  Among  modern  works  first  and  foremost  come  the  two 
volumes  (all  that  was  completed  at  the  time  of  his  death)  of 
Cornelius's  "  Geschtchte  dcs  Miinstcrischcn  Aitfruhrs"  a  mine 
of  accurate  scholarship  and  careful  historical  criticism.  Keller's 
"  Gesehichte  der  Wiedertaiifcr"  is  also  a  valuable  compendium 
of  original  research,  and  his  " Ein  Apostel  dcr  Wiederta&fer" 
(a  life  of  Hans  Denk)  is  noteworthy  as  a  sketch  of  Anabaptist 
life  and  manners.  Loserth's  works  on  the  subject,  especially 
his  "  Wicdertailfer  in  Mahren"  and  his  "  Balthazar  Hubmayer" 
are  of  considerable  value  to  the  historian.  Katitsky's  account 
of  the  Anabaptists  contained  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
"  Gesehichte  dcs  Socialismus"  may  be  mentioned  as  a  striking 
historical  appreciation.  As  regards  older  works  dealing  at 
second-hand  with  the  history  of  the  Anabaptists,  one  of  the 
most  widely  read  in  the  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth 
centuries,  when  it  passed  through  several  editions,  was  F. 
Catrou's  " Histoirc  des  Anabaptistes"  published  in  Paris.  A 
contemporary  German  medley  on  the  subject  was  compiled 
by  various  hands  and  published  at  Co'then,  in  Anhalt.  The 
English  '' Fanatick  History"  by  Blome,  issued  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  is  a  polemical  essay  directed  against  contem- 
porary Quakers  and  dissenters  generally,  and  holding  up  the 
Minister  Kingdom  of  God  as  a  terrifying  example,  a  policy 
more  than  once  adopted  by  theological  disputants  at  that  time. 

The  recent  English  literature  on  the  Anabaptists  is  scanty, 
the  most  important  contributions  being  perhaps  the  articles 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Richard  Heath,  scattered  through 
the  numbers  of  the  "Contemporary  Review"  between  1890 
and  1900. 

In  the  following  chapters  the  writer  believes  that  the  subject 
will  be  found  to  be  presented  in  a  fairly  complete  outline. 


CONTENTS 


I.     BEGINNINGS   OF  ANABAPTISM I 

II.     THE  ANABAPTIST  DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE  28 

III.  PERSECUTION    OF    THE    ANABAPTISTS    AND 

DEATH   OF   THE   EARLIER   LEADERS       .      .  66 

IV.  MELCHIOR    HOFFMANN    AND    THE    REVOLU- 

TIONARY  MOVEMENT 95 

V.     THE      REFORMATION     MOVEMENT      IN     THE 

EPISCOPAL   TERRITORIES   OF   MUNSTER      .  1 1/ 

VI.     THE   REIGN   OF   THE   SAINTS 1/2 

VII.     THE   NEW   ISRAEL    .      .      .      .  • '195 

VIII.     THE   PROPAGANDA   OUTSIDE   MUNSTER     .      .  257 

ix.  MUNSTER'S  FALL  AND  THE  FATE  OF  THE 

MOVEMENT 282 

X.      THE    ANABAPTIST   MOVEMENT   IN   ENGLAND  332 

XI.      CONCLUSION 384 

INDEX 393 


RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE 
ANABAPTISTS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

BEGINNINGS   OF   ANABAPTISM. 

THE  religio-political  mysticism,  sporadic  among 
the  smaller  handicraftsmen  of  the  towns  and 
the  peasantry  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  acquired  an  extraordinary  impulse  at 
their  close,  that  is,  during  the  period  known 
as  the  Reformation.  Political  movements  with 
a  religious  coloring,  or  religious  movements  with 
a  political  coloring,  according  to  circumstances, 
may  be  said  to  have  become  chronic,  through 
central  and  western  Europe,  from  the  end  of 
the  1 5th  century  onwards. 

In  two  former  volumes  I  have  traced  the 
history  of  these  movements  in  Germany,  which 
culminated  in  the  great  Peasants  War  of  1525. 
This  insurrection,  extinguished  though  it  was  as 
such  for  the  time  being,  continued  to  live  on 
in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and,  in  a  manner, 


2     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

rose  again  from  its  ashes  in  the  great  Anabap- 
tist revolt  of  a  few  years  later. 

Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  peasant  rising  of 
1525  have  been  incorrectly  described  as  Anabap- 
tists, on  account  of  the  similarity  of  their  views 
and  aims  with  those  of  the  later  movement. 
Notably  is  this  the  case  with  Thomas  Miinzer, 
the  leading  spirit  of  the  revolt  in  Thuringia  ; 
the  latter,  however,  was  by  no  means  at  one 
with  the  initiators  of  the  Anabaptist  movement 
then  just  beginning  in  Switzerland.  To  its  special 
sign,  re-baptism,  Miinzer  attached  no  importance 
whatever.  The  so-called  Zwickau  prophets,  Ni- 
cholas Storch  and  his  colleagues,  seem,  in  their 
general  attitude,  to  have  approached  very  closely 
to  the  principles  of  the  Anabaptist  sectaries. 
But,  even  here,  it  is  incorrect  to  regard  them, 
as  has  often  been  done,  as  directly  connected 
with  the  latter;  still  more,  as  themselves  the 
germ  of  the  Anabaptist  party  of  the  following 
years. 

As  to  the  actual  origins  of  Anabaptism,  pro- 
perly so  called,  our  information  is  somewhat 
scant,  and  is  vitiated  by  the  fact  that  much  of 
it  comes  from  bitterly  hostile  sources.  uAnno 
1524  and  1525  A.C.  is  God's  word  and  the 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM. 


Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  come  into  all  Germany, 
after  the  Peasants  War."  1  Such  is  the  exordium 
of  an  Anabaptist  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
sect.  "  As  may  be  found  in  the  old  chronicles  and 
histories,  Germany  or  Deutschland  was  so  wild, 
rude  and  untilled,  and  its  people  so  unlearned, 
with  so  rude  ways  and  customs  as  scarce  another 
place  or  province  in  the  world.  Moreover,  no 
man  hath  anywhere  read  that  any  apostle  or 
disciple  of  Christ  did  ever  come  to  this  country, 
notwithstanding  that  elsewhere  they  journeyed 
over  sea  and  land  to  far-off  countries,  to  the 
end  that  they  might  preach  God's  word.  Perhaps 
hath  even  this  German  land  been  chosen  by 
God  to  discover  and  to  set  forth  His  word  in 
this  the  last  age  of  this  passing  world."  The 
writer  then  proceeds,  in  a  few  words,  to  sketch 
the  history  of  the  Reformation,  observing  that 
Luther  had  known  how  to  pull  down  an  old 
house,  but  not  to  build  up  a  new  one.  With 
the  Reformers,  he  says,  it  is  as  though  they 
were  mending  an  old  pot  in  which  the  hole 
only  grows  larger :  u  They  have  smitten  the 
vessel  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Pope,  but  left 

1   Geschichtsbucher  der   Wiedertaufer  in  Ocstreich    Ungarn. 
Herausgegeben  von  J.  von  Beck,  II,  pp.  n,  12. 


4     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  fragments  therein ;  for  a  new  birth  of  Life 
hath  one  never  seen  with  them."  After  a  pass- 
ing allusion  to  Miinzer  and  others,  he  proceeds : 
"  God  hath  called  to  this  wonderful  work  men 
in  Switzerland;  amongst  them  have  been  Bal- 
thazar Hubmeyer,  Konrad  Grebel,  Felix  Manz 
and  Georg  von  Chur."  "These  men,"  he  says, 
uhave  recognized  that  one  must  first  of  all 
learn  the  Divine  message,  the  love  of  an  active 
faith,  and  only  after  having  done  so,  should  he 
receive  Christian  baptism.  But  since,  at  that 
time,  there  was  no  servant  ordained  to  such 
work,  Georg  of  the  house  of  Jacob  called  Blaurock 
rose  up  and  prayed  this  Konrad  Grebel  in  the 
name  of  God,  that  he  should  baptise  him.  After 
that  was  done,  the  others  there  present  did 
demand  the  same  from  Georg,  and  began  to 
hold  and  to  teach  the  faith.  Therewith  hath 
the  separation  from  the  world  originated  and 
hath  grown  up." 

This,  it  should  be  said,  happened  in  an  obscure 
gathering  of  enthusiasts  at  Zurich  in  the  year 
1525,  and  from  this  occasion  amidst  this  small 
circle  we  may  fairly  place  the  origin  of  the 
Anabaptist  sect  or  party  proper.  Anabaptism 
was  emphatically  in  the  air;  in  other  words, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  5 

the  spirit  and  general  tendencies  of  what  sub- 
sequently consolidated  itself  as  the  Anabaptist 
movement  were  dominant  amongst  certain  orders 
of  the  population  in  widely  distant  centres.  But 
the  sect  actually  took  its  rise  from  the  above 
indicated  small  beginnings. 

Zwingli  had,  through  the  manner  in  which  he 
had  conducted  the  Swiss  reformation,  given  an 
impulse  to  radical  tendencies,  especially  in 
Zurich,  the  centre  of  his  activity ;  tendencies 
which  he  found  it  difficult  later  on  to  stem, 
when  he  saw  he  was  beginning  to  lose  control 
of  them.  Appeals  to  the  command  of  God, 
as  taking  precedence  of  human  authority,  pas- 
sionate invocations  of  the  inner  light,  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  Numbers  came  from  other 
parts  of  Switzerland,  as  well  as  from  the  neigh- 
bouring German  territories,  to  join  in  the 
controversial  life  of  what  might  now  be  regarded 
as  the  metropolis  of  the  Reformation  in  this 
part  of  the  world.  From  Basel  especially  came 
several  of  those  who  were  later  the  apostles 
of  the  Anabaptist  movement.  Wilhelm  Reublin 
from  Wiirtemberg,  who  as  chief  preacher  at  St. 
Albans,  in  Basel,  had  ostentatiously  broken 
rules  as  to  fasting,  and  who  was  exiled  from 


6     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  city  as  soon  as  the  Reformation  began 
to  stir  there,  came  to  Zurich,  where  he  soon 
obtained  a  living  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
town,  and  not  long  after,  amid  the  applause 
of  the  inhabitants,  celebrated  the  first  priestly 
wedding  within  the  Swiss  borders.  Simon  Stumpf, 
another  Basel  priest,  finding  Basel  too  hot  for 
him,  fled  to  Zurich,  where,  like  his  colleague, 
he  obtained  a  living  in  a  village  near.  Here 
he  thundered  against  authority  in  Church  and 
State  and  was  eloquent  on  the  ungodliness  of 
rent-dues  and  tithes.  Ludwig  Hatzer  or  Hetzer, 
a  learned  young  priest,  hailing  from  Thurgau, 
was  also  drawn  to  the  great  centre  of  agitation, 
where  he  made  a  name  through  a  tract  he 
issued  against  images  in  churches.  Appointed 
as  secretary  to  the  great  debate  on  current 
theological  questions  held  by  the  City  Council 
in  October  1523,  he  was  the  official  editor  of 
the  minutes  afterwards  published.  Hans  Brodli, 
yet  another  preacher,  came  from  Graubiinden 
and  settled  at  Zollikon,  near  Zurich,  where  he 
also  instructed  the  peasantry  in  the  principles 
of  the  new  gospel,  not  forgetting  also  to  denounce 
tithes  and  dues  as  contrary  to  the  Pauline 
precept  that  all  men  should  earn  their  bread 


JBEG1NNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  ^ 

by  the  work  of  their  hands.  In  close  connection 
with  these  men  by  means  of  correspondence 
were  others  holding;  similar  views  in  the  north 

o 

of  Switzerland  and  across  the  German  border. 
Amongst  them  may  be  noted  Balthazar  Hub- 
meyer,  the  reforming  pastor  of  Waldshut,  an 
account  of  whose  activity  there  will  be  found 
in  our  former  volume.  (See  "Peasants  War" 
pp.  91 — 94.)  There  was  also  the  Reader  of 
the  bare-footed  friars  at  Schaffhausen,  Dr.  Sebas- 
tian Hochmeister.  They  were  both  enthusiastic 
adherents  of  the  new  order  of  things  ecclesiastical 
that  was  being  inaugurated  at  Zurich. 

For  at  first  the  Anabaptist  movement  at  Zurich 
was  an  extreme  wing  of  the  reforming  movement 
of  Zwingli.  But,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  no  sooner 
had  the  latter  movement  succeeded  in  establishing 
itself  than  a  rupture  took  place,  and  Zwingli 
found  himself  strong  enough  to  cut  off  his 
inconvenient  radical  tail.  Early  in  the  year 
1522  we  hear  of  the  formation  of  a  school  of 
heretics  in  the  town,  under  the  leadership  of 
the  bookseller  Andreas  auf  der  Stilze,  who 
also  hailed  from  Basel,  where,  it  is  probable, 
he  had  already  been  associated  in  friendly 
intercourse  with  Grebel,  Stumpf,  Reublin,  Hetzer 


8      RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  others.  But  at  first  this  association,  advanced 
as  were  its  views,  continued  in  the  most  friendly 
relation  with  Zwingli  himself,  and  with  the 
reformed  party  in  Zurich  generally. 

It  was  in  the  late  autumn  of  this  year,  1522, 
that  the  other  reforming  spirits  from  Basel  came 
to  Zurich.  From  this  time  forward,  the  little 
society  embodying  the  new  tendencies  acquired 
fresh  life  and  importance.  Proselytes  joined 
it  every  day.  The  tendencies,  embodied  in 
the  circle,  began  to  acquire  consistency  and 
gradually  took  on  the  character  of  a  distinct 
sect.  From  among  the  newcomers  two  men 
now  obtained  a  special  influence  .  among  the 
u  Brethren,"  or  the  u  Spirituals  "  as  they  were 
termed.  These  were  the  above  mentioned 
Konrad  Grebel,  himself  a  young  man  sprung 
from  a  well-to-do  family  of  Zurich  burghers, 
who  had  studied  in  Paris  and  Vienna,  and 
Felix  Manz,  also  a  Zurich  burgher,  and  a  friend 
of  Grebel.  In  the  house  of  Manz's  mother 
meetings  of  the  sectaries  were  held.  Like 
Grebel,  Manz  was  a  scholar  and  full  of  youthful 
enthusiasm. 

Zwingli  had,  by  this  time,  carried  out  the 
new  principles  of  the  Reformation  much  more 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPT1SM. 


logically  than  Luther  and  embodied  them  in  a 
distinct  confession  of  faith.  Not  standing  on 
the  same  theological  ground  as  Luther,  he  had 
less  hesitation  and  was  prepared  to  carry  on 
the  work  of  destruction  beyond  the  point  at 
which  Luther  held  his  hand.  The  result  was 
that  in  Zurich  every  semblance  of  Catholic 
ceremony  was  entirely  swept  away.  Meanwhile 
the  effect  of  the  continuous  theological  wrangling 
of  the  Reformers  amongst  themselves,  who 

o 

showed  themselves  only  thoroughly  united  in 
their  attack  on  Catholicism  and  on  certain 
catholic  usages,  was  to  detach  large  numbers 
of  the  non-learned  classes  from  the  positive 
dogmatic  system  that  the  learned  were  endeav- 
ouring to  set  up  in  the  place  of  the  old  Catholic 
theology.  The  biblical  text  itself,  now  every- 
where read  and  re-read  in  the  German  language, 
was  pondered  and  discussed  in  the  house  of 
the  handicraftsman  and  in  the  hut  of  the  peasant 
with  as  much  confidence  of  interpretation  as  in 
the  study  of  the  professional  theologian.  But 
there  were  also  not  a  few  of  the  latter  order, 
as  we  have  seen,  who  were  becoming  disgusted 
with  the  trend  of  the  official  Reformation  and 
its  leading  representatives.  The  Bible  thus 


io     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

afforded  a  point  d'appui  for  the  mystical  tenden- 
cies now  becoming  universally  prominent,  a 
point  cCappui  lacking  to  the  earlier  movements 
of  the  same  kind  that  were  so  constantly  arising 
during  the  Middle  Ages  proper.  Seen  in  the 
dim  religious  light  of  a  continuous  reading  of 
the  Bible  and  of  very  little  else,  the  world 
began  to  appear  in  a  new  aspect  to  the  simple 
soul  who  practised  it.  All  things  seemed  filled 
with  the  immediate  presence  of  Deity.  He 
who  felt  a  call  pictured  himself  as  playing  the 
part  of  the  Hebrew  prophet.  He  gathered 
together  a  small  congregation  of  followers  who 
felt  themselves  as  the  children  of  God  in  the 
midst  of  a  heathen  world.  Did  not  the  fall  of 
the  old  Church  mean  that  the  day  was  at  hand 
when  the  elect  should  govern  the  world?  It 

O 

was  not  so  much  positive  doctrines  as  an  atti- 
tude of  mind  that  was  the  ruling  spirit  in  Ana- 
baptism  and  like  movements.  Similarly,  it  was 
undoubtedly  such  a  sensitive  impressionism 
rather  than  any  positive  dogma  that  dominated 
the  first  generation  of  the  Christian  Church 
itself.  How  this  acted  in  the  case  of  the  earlier 
Anabaptists  we  shall  presently  see. 

The    new    sect   that   took    its    rise    in    Zurich 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  11 

in  1522  was  one  of  a  number  of  similar  sects 
springing  up  at  various  points  throughout  central 
Europe  about  the  same  time.  This  Zurich 
sect,  however,  historical  fate  had  ordained  should 
be  the  germ  of  the  great  Anabaptist  movement, 
absorbing  all  other  like  sects  and  tendencies 
into  itself.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it 
was,  in  its  earlier  stages,  emphatically  a  religi- 
ous and  non-political  organization.  This  was 
the  point  which  sharply  distinguished  Konrad 
Grebel  and  his  friends  from  others  whose  tenden- 
cies were  similar,  notably  from  Thomas  Miinzer. 
The  little  Zurich  society  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  carnal  weapons.  They  would  fight 
only  with  the  sword  of  the  spirit.  In  a  letter 
under  date  September  5th,  1524,  written  by 
Konrad  Grebel  and  his  friends  to  Munzer,  they 
say :  u  The  Gospel  and  its  followers  shall  not 
be  guarded  by  the  sword,  neither  shall  they 
so  guard  themselves,  as,  by  what  we  hear  from 
the  Brethren,  ye  assume  and  pretend  to  be 
right.  Truly  believing  Christians  are  sheep  in 
the  midst  of  wolves,  sheep  ready  for  the  slaughter ; 
they  must  be  baptized  in  fear  and  in  need,  in 
tribulation  and  death,  that  they  may  be  tried 
to  the  last,  and  enter  the  fatherland  of  eternal 


12     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

peace  not  with  carnal,  but  with  spiritual,  weapons. 
They  use  neither  the  sword  of  the  world  nor 
war,  for  to  kill  is  forbidden,"  etc. 

During  the  year  1523  the  new  sect  grew 
rapidly  in  Switzerland.  The  idea  also  made 
great  headway  that  the  aim  of  the  Church 
reformation  was  the  re-establishment  of  primitive 
Christian  condition,  not  merely  in  matters  of 
theology,  but  of  social  practice.  But  for  many 
months  there  was  no  open  schism  between  the 
Brethren  and  the  reforming  party  of  Zwingli. 
They  made  it  their  task  to  endeavour  to  urge 
Zwingli  forward  in  the  direction  of  religious 
revolution  and  of  such  social  changes  as  seemed 
to  them  demanded  by  Holy  Writ.  Zwingli  on 
his  side  confined  himself  to  endeavouring  to 
check  the  more  extreme  tendencies  by  gentle 
remonstrances.  Yet  the  differences  between  the 
official  reformation  of  Zwingli  and  that  of  the 
Brethren  became  more  and  more  apparent 
every  day,  accompanied  by  an  increasing  bitter- 
ness on  both  sides.  The  definite  split  did  not 
occur  before  the  end  of  June.  The  Brethren 
became  increasingly  insistent  on  the  immediate 
abolition  of  tithes  and  other  ecclesiastical  dues. 
Zwingli  himself  had  previously  spoken  in  favour 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  13 

of  this  reform,  which  was,  however,  strongly 
opposed  by  an  influential  section  of  the  burghers, 
who  also  carried  with  them  a  majority  of  the 
City  Council.  Accordingly,  on  June  22nd,  the 
Council  passed  a  resolution  condemning  emphatic- 
ally the  idea  of  attacking  the  existing  sources 
of  Church  revenue.  This  was  for  Zwingli  a 
parting  of  the  ways.  He  had  to  make  up  his 
mind  either  to  throw  in  his  lot  completely  with 
the  Brethren,  whose  revolutionary  tendencies  he 
now  dreaded — a  course  that  would  have  damned 
his  influence  with  the  wealthy  Zurich  burghers — 
or  to  throw  over  the  Brethren  with  their  sub- 
versive doctrines  and  attach  himself  definitely  to 
the  moderate  party  that  found  its  expression 
in  the  majority  of  the  Town  Council.  He  did 
not  long  hesitate.  On  June  25th,  he  delivered 
a  sermon  in  favour  of  the  Council,  and  thus 
definitely  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  the 
moderates.  Henceforward  he  became  the  ac- 
knowledged head  of  the  official  reformation  in 

o 

Switzerland. 

The  u  Spirituals,"  on  their  side,  grew  more 
decided  in  their  tendencies.  It  was  now  that 
the  question  of  infant  baptism  first  came  forward 
as  a  prominent  feature  in  the  agitation  of  the 


i4     KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Brethren.  But  the  rejection  of  infant  baptism, 
strongly  as  it  was  insisted  upon,  was  after  all 
only  a  sign  of  vast  divergencies  otherwise  from 
the  Zwinglian  Reformation.  The  Brethren,  as 
representing  the  men  of  low  estate,  felt  that 
they  had  not  overthrown  the  Roman  Church 
organization  to  hand  themselves  over,  body  and 
soul,  to  the  secular  authorities  of  the  city,  the 
u  Ehrbarkeit "  and  wealthy  guildmasters  of  Zurich. 
The  theory  that  the  Bible,  interpreted  by  the 
inward  light,  was  the  only  rule  of  faith,  before 
which  all  human  authority  and  institutions  must 
bend,  was  now  proclaimed  with  greater  emphasis 
then  ever.  The  result  was  as  might  have  been 
expected.  The  truth  of  the  saying  that  "  you 
may  prove  anything  out  of  the  Bible"  is  sig- 
nally illustrated  by  the  subsequent  history  of 
the  movement.  The  most  absolute  non-resistance 
doctrine,  the  most  fiery  invocations  of  the  sword 
to  destroy  the  unbelieving  occupant  of  place 
and  power,  the  mortification  of  the  flesh  of  the 
anchorite,  and  the  unbridled  lasciviousness  of 
the  libertine,  alike  found  their  place  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Anabaptists  and  of  the  later  sects  of  the 
1 6th  and  lyth  centuries  that  sprang  from  the 
Anabaptist  root. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  15 

After  Zvvingli's  sermon  the  hostility  between 
the  two  parties  was  declared.  The  decisive  crisis, 
however,  was  brought  about  by  the  debate  in 
the  City  Council  on  October  26th,  1523.  There 
had  already  been  a  similar  debate  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Church  reformation  in  the  previous 
January.  On  this  occasion  the  reformed  Evan- 
gelical party  had  presented  a  solid  front  in  their 
demands.  Now  it  was  otherwise,  the  only  point 
upon  which  unanimity  prevailed  being  the  abo- 
lition of  the  Romish  cultus,  of  the  Mass,  images 
etc;  the  question  as  to  what  should  take  the 
place  of  these  things  led  to  violent  altercations. 
Grebel  denounced  various  matters  connected 
with  the  Sacrament — the  mixing  of  the  wine 
with  water,  the  use  of  unleavened  bread,  its 
being  received  by  the  laity  from  the  hands  of 
the  priests,  etc.  Zwingli  would  have  none  of 
these  criticisms.  The  malcontents  were  inveighed 
against  as  a  source  of  discord.  They  on 
their  side  declared  Zwingli  to  have  betrayed 
the  cause  in  agreeing  to  accept  the  decision  of 
the  Council  on  spiritual  matters.  uYou  have 
no  power,"  said  Simon  Stumpf,  uto  give  the 
judgment  into  the  hands  of  the  City  Fathers ; 
judgment  is  already  given;  the  Spirit  of  God 


1 6     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

judges."     The  Council,  however,  accepted  Zwin- 
gli's   propositions  and  passed  laws  accordingly. 

This  meant,  of  course,  that  the  breach  between 
the  two  parties  could  not  be  bridged  over.  The 
''Spirituals"  formally  repudiated  the  now  offi- 
cially established  Zwinglianism  and  all  its  ways. 
But  the  new  sect  grew.  The  meetings  of  the 
small  handicraftsmen  and  journeymen  that  were 
assembled  under  the  leadership  of  Grebel,  Manz, 
and  their  friends,  were  continually  increased  by 
the  accession  of  new  members.  In  addition,  the 
original  strain  of  ecclesiastical  radicalism,  or 
anarchism  if  one  likes,  received  an  accession  of 
strength  from  the  sentiment  of  an  oppressed 
class  in  which  political  and  economic  consider- 
ations mixed  themselves  up  with  religious  en- 
thusiasm. By  the  end  of  the  year  Zwingli  had 
already  begun  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  secular 
arm  to  repress  the  sect  which  was  now  a  serious 
obstacle  to  him  in  his  work  of  organizing  the 
new  Church  polity.  Two  months  after  the  great 
debate  in  the  City  Council,  Simon  Stumpf  was 
banished.  Meanwhile  progress  was  made  by  the 
Brethren  in  the  adjacent  country  districts,  a  large 
number  of  peasants  joining. 

With  the  extension  of  the  Brethren  in  numbers, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  17 

the  rejection  of  infant  baptism  as  a  test-sign 
of  adhesion  became  ever  more  prominent.  Parents 
began  to  refuse  to  allow  their  children  to  be 
christened.  At  last  an  edict  was  issued  forbidding 
the  meetings  of  the  body.  Reublin,  who  had 
made  himself  particularly  conspicuous  in  his  at- 
tacks on  the  orthodox  baptismal  theory,  was 
arrested,  and  it  was  made  compulsory  for  parents 
to  bring  their  children  to  the  font.  At  the  same 
time  attempts  were  made,  both  in  private  inter- 
views and  public  disputations,  to  convert  the 
"  Spirituals."  This  went  on  throughout  the  year 
1524,  till  the  whole  city  rang  with  the  questions 
at  issue,  eagerly  debated  as  they  were,  in  every 
church  and  at  every  street  corner. 

Finally  Zwingli  issued  a  manifesto  and  announ- 
ced a  public  disputation  for  January  i8th,  1525. 
On  this  occasion,  after  having  conclusively,  as 
he  deemed  it,  refuted  the  errors  of  the  Brethren, 
he  read  out  from  the  pulpit  a  new  order  of  the 
Council  visiting  the  refusal  of  infant  baptism 
with  expulsion  from  the  city  and  its  territory. 
Three  days  later  several  of  the  principal  leaders 
received  notice  to  quit  within  a  week.  Just  at 
this  time,  an  ex-priest,  Georg  Blaurock,  (so- 
called  from  the  blue  costume  he  habitually  wore) 


i8    KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

who  had  recently  come  from  the  town  of  Chur 
and  who  had  just  become  prominent,  proposed 
to    Grebel  and  Manz,  who,  as  Ziirich  burghers, 
had   not   been   exiled,    to   formally  proclaim  re- 
baptism  a   solemn  duty  for  all  Brethren.     This 
was  done  on  the  historical  occasion  referred  to  in 
the  passage  from  the  "  Geschichtsbiicher  "  quoted 
earlier  in  this  chapter.     At  this  meeting,  as  we 
have    already   seen,    Blaurock   rose    and   called 
upon  Grebel  to  baptize  him  in  the  true  Christian 
Faith,  which  ceremony  having  been  accomplished, 
all   present   received   baptism    at  the   hands  of 
Blaurock.     It   appears  to  have  been  done  with 
the   object   of  showing  their  abhorrence  of  the 
idea   of  a   hierarchy    or   of  leaders  at  all.     All 
who   had   been    awakened   to  the  true  faith  by 
the  inward  light,  were  entitled  to  receive  baptism, 
and   all    who  had   received   it  were  entitled  to 
confer   it   on  others.     This  event,  which  marks 
the  beginning  of  the  Anabaptist  movement  pro- 
perly so-called,  occurred  on  January  2ist,  1525. 
By  the  decision  to  constitute  re-baptism  a  sign 
and  seal  of  membership  of  their  community,  the 
"  Brethren  "  definitely  cut  themselves  loose  from 
the  rest  of  Christendom,  Protestant  no  less  than 
Catholic.     It   was  the  gauntlet  thrown  down  to 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  19 

the  current  Christianity  in  all  its  forms — to  the 
new  reformed  doctrines  represented  by  Luther 
and  Zwingli  no  less  than  to  the  older  Catholicism, 
against  which  their  polemic  had  been  directed. 
The  notion  of  a  community  of  the  elect,  surroun- 
ded by  a  wicked  world  with  which  it  was  at 
war,  was  naturally  fostered  by  the  new  devel- 
opment things  had  taken.  The  change,  slight 
as  it  seems  to  us,  had  an  electrical  effect. 
"  Brethren  with  girdles  of  cords  round  their 
.waists  were  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  and  open 
places  of  Zurich,  as  well  as  in  the  country  hard 
by,  crying :  '  Woe !  woe ! '  foretelling  for  Zurich 
the  fate  of  Niniveh,  which  would  not  listen  to 
Jonah,  exhorting  to  repentance,  righteousness 
and  brotherly  love,  and  denouncing  the  dragon, 
as  they  called  Zwingli,  with  all  his  abettors."  ' 

1  It  should  here  be  pointed  out,  in  order  to  give  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  effect  produced,  that  in  the  adoption 
of  the  theory  of  re-baptism,  the  Zurich  Brethren  were  quite 
original.  Many  of  the  reforming  party  opposed  infant  bap- 
tism. Indeed,  Zwingli  himself  had  originally  favored  this 
view ;  and,  although  the  Brethren  gave  it  special  prominence 
from  the  beginning,  it  cannot  be  regarded  as,  in  any  way, 
a  tenet  distinctive  in  the  sense  of  exclusive.  With  re-baptism 
it  was  otherwise.  This  had  never  been  suggested  before  by 
any  of  the  reforming  parties. 


20    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

A  sharp  persecution  now  began.     The  Ratk 
ordered    a    number    of   arrests,    amongst   them 
those    of   Manz    and    Blaurock.     Even    severer 
punishments  were  tried  in  order  to  suppress  the 
new  teachings,  but  without  avail.    Suffering  drew 
the     Brethren    closely    together.      Communistic 
doctrines  now  became  part  of  the  principles  of 
the  League  of  Zurich  Brethren,  and  a  practical 
attempt   at  a  kind  of  family  communism  seems 
to   have   been   started.      A   common    fund   was 
inaugurated   from  the  wealthy  members,  out  of 
which  indigent  Brethren  might  obtain  what  they 
liked.    But  the  persecution  succeeded  in  its  imme- 
diate object.    The  Brethren,  or  the  Anabaptists, 
as   we   may  now  term  them,  were  well-nigh  all 
driven  from  Zurich,  and  the  little  community  in 
its  original  form  was  broken  up  and  dispersed. 
The    result   was    only   to  carry  the  seed  of  the 
new  doctrines  over  the  whole  of  northern  Switz- 
erland   and  southern  Germany.  Grebel  repaired 
to   Schaffhausen   and  Reublin  to  Waldshut.     In 
the   latter   place  Balthazar  Hubmeyer  definitely 
joined    the    new    sect.     This    meant,   of  course, 
his   separation    from    Zwingli    and  the  orthodox 
Reformation.      With    Hubmeyer    the    reformed 
community  of  Waldshut  was  won  over. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  21 

In  Graubiinden  Anabaptist  doctrines  were 
preached  by  Manz  and  gained  many  adherents. 
Basel  and  Bern  also  became  infected,  while  in 
St.  Gallen  and  Appenzell  the  new  teachings 
made  a  profound  impression  on  the  whole 
population. 

The  excitement  leading  to  the  great  outburst 
of  the  Peasants  War  was  favorable  to  the  pro- 
paganda, but  the  war  itself,  especially  the  suc- 
cesses of  the  insurgents  in  its  earlier  stages, 
— successes  which  led  many  really  to  hope  that 
the  day  of  the  peasant  and  the  common  man 
had  at  last  come,  and  that  he  was  in  very  deed 
about  to  crush  the  ecclesiastical  and  noble  op- 
pressor,— was  not  favorable  to  a  doctrine  that, 
at  this  period,  proclaimed  non-resistance  as  one 
of  its  cardinal  tenets.  During  the  course  of  the 
Peasant  insurrection,  to  the  great  bulk  of  the 
population,  the  new  Anabaptist  preachers  were 
confounded  with  the  numberless  theological 
agitators  with  which  Germany  then  abounded. 
Zwingli  and  the  Zurich  Council,  keenly  alive 
to  the  danger  of  the  new  departure  in  theolo 
gical  discipline,  did  not  meanwhile  rest  satisfied 
with  the  mere  expulsion  of  the  sectaries  from 
the  town  and  territory.  Zwingli  published  a 


22    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

manifesto,  designed  to  prove  that  infant  baptism 
was  an  essential  part  of  the  Evangelical  doctrine. 
Hubmeyer   replied  in  a  trenchant  manner  from 
the  Anabaptist  standpoint.    Zwingli  rejoined  with 
an   abusive   attack   on   Hubmeyer.     But   in  the 
end   the  clever  theological  disputant  succeeded 
in  establishing  infant  baptism  and  the  heretical 
character   of  re-baptism    on   a   dogmatic   basis, 
which,  if  it  did  not  convert  the  Anabaptists,  at 
least   proved  satisfactory   to  his  own  followers. 
The  question,  said  Zwingli,  was  not  merely  one 
of  baptism,    but   of  the    introduction  of  schism 
and  heresy  generally  into  the  Church.     No  one 
had  any  right,  he  continued,  to  leave  the  Church, 
but   all   were   bound   to  submit  to  the  decision 
of  the    majority  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  supreme  authority  of  the  State. 
About  midsummer,  1525,  at  a  time  that  nearly 
coincided   with   the   first   serious  defeats  of  the 
peasants,  a  persecution  again  broke  out  against 
the    Anabaptists   in   the   new   localities,    where, 
for  the  last  few  months,  they  had  been  planting 
their  seed  in  comparative  peace.    In  St.  Gallen, 
notably,  the  Council  began  to  take  steps.    First 
of  all,  it  invited  the  new  sectaries  to  a  debate 
in   the  church  of  St.  Laurenz.     Meanwhile  they 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  23 


were  enjoined  to  cease  proselytising.  As  might 
be  imagined  these  measures  led  to  nothing. 
Finally  the  Biirgermeister  of  the  town,  Joachim 
von  Watt,  who,  according  to  the  practice  of 
the  time  was  also  known  as  Vadianus,  took  a 
determined  stand  in  opposition  to  the  new  pro- 
paganda. His  standpoint  was  not  so  much  that 
of  theological  opposition  to  the  new  tenets,  for  he 
had  notably  himself  been  opposed  to  infant  bap- 
tism, but  rather  that  of  a  statesman,  or  "  man  of 
order,"  who  feared  the  methods  of  the  new  pro- 
paganda. All  ecclesiastical  changes,  he  main- 
tained, must  take  place  gradually  so  as  not  to 
endanger  political  stability.  The  practice  of  re- 
baptism,  erected  into  an  institution,  he  denounced 
as  contrary  to  the  preachings  of  the  Apostles, 
and  to  the  precepts  of  Holy  Writ.  Both  Zwingli 
and  Grebel  left  no  stone  unturned  to  influence 
the  decision  of  the  St.  Gallen  Council  in  favour 
of  their  respective  sides.  At  last,  on  the  5th  of 
June,  a  manifesto  of  the  Burgermeister  against 
the  Anabaptists,  together  with  a  reply  of  the 
latter,  was  publicly  read  before  the  Council. 
The  result  was  a  decree  stringently  forbidding 
re-baptism  and  also  the  "breaking  of  bread,"  the 
form  of  the  sacrament  adopted  by  the  new  Sect. 


24    KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The  punishment  for  the  re-baptiser  was  impri- 
sonment and  banishment,  for  the  re-baptized  a 
heavy  pecuniary  fine. 

The  Ratk  then  called  together  two  hundred 
well-known  citizens  in  order  that  they  might 
be  sworn  in  as  a  kind  of  special  constables,  to 
see  to  the  carrying  out  of  its  decisions.  One 
only  refused  the  oath,  and  he  was  at  once,  with 
his  family,  expelled  from  the  town.  Thereupon 
followed  the  suppression  of  the  Anabaptist  com- 
munity in  St.  Gallen.  The  persecution  spread 
rapidly.  In  July  Manz  was  arrested  in  Chur  and 
handed  over  to  the  Zurich  Rath.  In  August 
Hochmeister  was  banished  from  Schaffhausen. 
He  went,  however,  to  Zurich  and  u ratted"  to 
the  Zwinglian  party,  receiving  his  reward  in 
consequence  from  Zwingli,  who  gave  him  an 
appointment.  At  the  same  time  Bern  also  exiled 
the  new  teachers.  In  December,  the  town  of 
Waldshut  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Austrian 
authorities,  and  there  also  the  new  doctrines 
and  practices  were  suppressed.  Hubmeyer, 
hotly  pursued  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  fled  in  desperation  to  Zurich,  where 
he  was  at  once  arrested  and  compelled  to  hold 
a  public  disputation  with  Zwingli.  Hubmeyer 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  25 

anticipated  this  by  recantation,  but  on  being 
forced  to  ascend  the  pulpit  in  order  to  advocate 
infant  baptism,  he  startled  his  hearers  by  preach- 
ing a  sermon  against  it.  He  was  re-arrested, 
put  to  the  torture,  compelled  to  a  triple  recan- 
tation in  public  of  the  views  he  had  expressed, 
and  after  having  sworn  an  oath  at  once  to 

o 

leave  and  never  re-enter  Zurich  territory,  was 
dismissed. 

The  persecution  throughout  the  Swiss  cantons 
continued  during  1526  and  1527.  It  did  not,  how- 
ever, succeed  by  any  means  in  entirely  stamping 
out  the  movement  even  in  Switzerland,  while 
it  had  the  effect  of  the  dispersal  of  the  leading 
spirits  far  and  wide  throughout  southern  Germany. 
During  1525,  with  the  exception  of  Waldshut 
and  a  few  places  on  the  immediate  confines  of 
the  Swiss  territories,  the  movement  had  remained 
essentially  local  and  Swiss.  But  in  the  spring 
of  1526,  we  already  see  signs  of  considerable 
Anabaptist  activity  in  the  southern  provinces 
of  the  empire.  Hubmeyer,  leaving  Zurich  in 
April,  repaired  to  Augsburg  and  later  on  to 
Nicolsburg  in  Moravia;  where  he  settled  down 
and  once  more  took  up  the  cause  of  Anabap- 
tism.  Tracts  from  his  pen  appeared  in  sue- 


26   RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

cession,  but  this  did  not  hinder  his  preaching 
and  teaching  with  his  wonted  energy. 

The  last  of  the  leaders  to  forsake  Switzerland 
was  Blaurock,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  1527, 
was  flogged  through  the  streets  of  Zurich,  and 
thrown  out  at  the  city  gate.  He  went  to  sow 
the  seed  of  the  new  doctrines  in  Tyrol.  Not 
alone  the  leaders,  but  numbers  of  the  rank  and 
file,  whose  names  are  unknown,  felt  a  call  to  go 
a-preaching. 

Hatzer,  after  a  period  of  wavering,  settled 
down  in  Strasburg,  and  in  the  summer  of  1526 
started  an  industrious  propaganda  in  that  city 
and  in  the  Upper  Rhenish  districts  generally. 
The  Niirnberg  schoolmaster,  Hans  Denck,  also 
joined  Hatzer  in  Strasburg.  A  former  admirer 
of  Thomas  Miinzer,  Hans  Hut  from  Hain  in 
Franconia,  was  now  won  over  to  the  new  sect 
and  to  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance.  Hut, 
possessed  alike  of  eloquence  and  untiring  energy, 
proved  a  priceless  acquisition  to  the  movement. 
In  proportion  as,  after  the  great  defeat  of  1525, 
despair  of  attaining  their  aims  by  insurrectionary 
methods  gradually  settled  down  on  the  peasantry 
and  poor  handicraftsmen,  the  Anabaptist  doctrine 
spread  like  wild-fire ;  attracting  to  itself  all  the 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ANABAPTISM.  27 

elements  from  the  earlier  peasant  and  proletarian 
movements  that  had  a  similar  religious  coloring. 
At  the  same  time  the  new  elements  that  came 
in  did  not  fail  in  the  course  of  events,  as  we 
shall  see,  to  change  the  character  of  the  propa- 
ganda. 

The  movement,  in  its  inception  purely  religious, 
took  on  an  increasingly  political  colour.  The 
purely  voluntary  communism  in  imitation  of  the 
supposed  institutions  of  the  early  Christians,  which 
the  Zurich  Brethren  had  instituted  among  them- 
selves, became  more  and  more  raised  to  the 
position  of  a  cardinal  principle,  whilst  the  non- 
resistance  doctrine,  in  certain  quarters  began  to 
fall  into  the  background. 

By  the  end  of  1527  the  new  propaganda  had 
done  its  work.  The  process  of  absorption  was 
complete,  and  the  great  Anabaptist  movement 
had  entered  upon  its  changeful  and  chequered 
career. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    ANABAPTIST    DOCTRINES    AND    PRACTICE. 

SEBASTIAN  FRANCK  in  his  Chronik  (III,  fol.  188) 
observes,  respecting  the  spread  of  the  new  move- 
ment, uthe  course  of  the  Anabaptists  was  so 
swift,  that  their  doctrines  soon  overspread  the 
whole  land  and  they  obtained  much  following, 
baptized  thousands  and  drew  many  good  hearts 
to  them  ;  for  they  taught,  as  it  seemed,  naught 
but  love,  faith  and  endurance,  showing  them- 
selves in  much  tribulation  patient  and  humble. 
They  brake  bread  with  one  another  as  a  sign 
of  oneness  and  love,  helped  one  another  truly 
with  precept,  lending,  borrowing,  giving:  taught 
that  all  things  should  be  in  common  and  called 
each  other  l  Brother.'  They  increased  so  sud- 
denly that  the  world  did  fear  a  tumult  for  reason 
of  them.  Though  of  this,  as  I  hear,  they  have  in  all 
places  been  found  innocent.  They  are  persecuted 
in  many  parts  with  great  tyranny,  cast  into 
bonds  and  tormented,  with  burning,  with  sword, 
with  fire,  with  water,  and  with  much  imprison- 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  29 

ment,  so  that  in  few  years  in  many  places  a 
multitude  of  them  have  been  undone,  as  is  re- 
ported to  the  number  of  two  thousand,  who  in 
divers  places  have  been  killed."  "And,"  he 
adds,  "  they  suffer  as  martyrs  with  patience  and 
steadfastness."  This  judgment  of  a  contempo- 
rary, as  to  the  general  impression  made  by  the 
new  party,  for  by  the  end  of  the  second  decade 
of  the  century  it  had  attained  dimensions  which 
entitled  it  to  be  called  so,  is  amply  confirmed 
from  other  sources. 

As  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  after  the 
suppression  of  the  Peasants  Revolt,  the  sect 
inaugurated  by  the  Spiritual  Brethren  of  Zurich 
rapidly  absorbed  all  similar  sects  and  tendencies. 
The  process  of  conversion  and  absorption,  as 
we  shall  see  later  on,  at  first  confined  to  South 
Germany,  began  from  the  year  1527  onward 
to  spread  northward  along  the  Valley  of  the 
Rhine.  Our  task  in  the  present  chapter  is  to 
indicate  the  main  lines  of  the  tendencies  charac- 
terising the  movement — tendencies  which  main- 
tained themselves  with  more  or  less  constancy, 
but  with  varying  fortune,  throughout  the  course 
of  its  career. 

Heinrich    Bullinger    in    his    book   against   the 


30   RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Anabaptists,    (u  Der    Wiedert'aufferen    Ursprung, 
Furgang,  Secten,  Wesen"  etc.,  pp.  17 — 55),  the  first 
edition   of  which    was  published   in    1531,    and 
the  second  in   1560,  enumerates  thirteen  distinct 
sects,  as  he  terms  them,  within  the  Anabaptist 
body.     The    general   tenets  of  the  organization 
he  gives  in  the  form  of  twenty-five  propositions, 
which  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  -  -  They 
regard  themselves  as  the  true  Church  of  Christ 
well  pleasing  to  God;  they  believe  that  by  re- 
baptism  a  man  is  received  into  the  Church ;  they 
refuse   to  hold  intercourse  with  other  Churches 
or   to   recognize   their   ministers;  they  say  that 
the  preachings  of  these  are  different  from  their 
works,    that    no    man    is    the    better    for    their 
preaching,   that   their   ministers   follow    not   the 
teaching  of  Paul,  that  they  take  payment  from 
their  benifices,  but  do  not  work  by  their  hands ; 
that  the  Sacraments  are  improperly  served,  and 
that  every  man,  who  feels  the  call,  has  the  right  to 
preach ;    they   maintain   that   the   literal   text  of 
the  Scriptures  shall  be  accepted  without  comment 
or    the    additions   of  theologians ;    they    protest 
against  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith   alone;    they   maintain    that   true  Christian 
love    makes  it  inconsistent  for  any  Christian  to 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  31 

be  rich,  but  that  among  the  Brethren  all  things 
should   be    in  common,  or  at  least  all  available 
for   the    assistance    of  needy   Brethren    and  for 
the  common  Cause ;  the  preachers  of  the  official 
Reformation,    they    maintain,    mix   up    the   Old 
Testament  with  the  New,  unmindful  of  the  fact 
that   for   the  Christian  the  New  Testament  has 
superseded   and    abolished   the   Old ; l    they  de- 
clare   it  untrue,  as  the  Lutheran  and  Zwinglian 
preachers   allege,    that   the   soul    flies   from  the 
body  straight  to  heaven,  for  it  sleeps  until  the 
Last    Day;    they    maintain    that   the    preachers 
rely    too   much    on   the    secular   arm ;   that   the 
attitude  of  the  Christian  towards  authority  should 
be  that  of  submission  and  endurance  only;  that 
no   Christian   ought  to  take  office  of  any  kind  ; 
that  secular  authority  has  no  concern  with  reli- 
gious  belief;   that  the  Christian  resists  no  evil, 
and   therefore    needs   no   law-courts   nor  should 
ever  make  use  of  the  tribunals ;  that  Christians 
do  not  kill  or  punish  with  imprisonment  or  the 
sword,    but   only    with  exclusion  from  the  body 
of  believers ;  that  no  man  should  be  compelled 

1  This  doctrine  was  certainly  not  universal.  The  Miin- 
sterites,  for  example,  seem  to  have  rated  the  Old  Testament 
hisrher  than  the  New. 


32    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

by  force  to  believe,  nor  should  any  be  slain  on 
account  of  his  faith ;  that  Christians  do  not  resist, 
and  hence,  do  not  go  to  war ;  that  Christians  may 
not  swear ;  that  all  oaths  are  sinful ;  that  infant 
baptism  is  of  the  Pope  and  the  Devil ;  that  re- 
baptism,  or,  better,  adult-baptism,  is  the  only  true 
Christian  baptism ;  that  the  Lutheran  and  Zwin- 
glian  preachers  make  no  distinction  of  persons, 
allowing  sinners,  as  well  as  others,  to  receive 
the  Sacrament,  which  should  be  reserved  for  the 
elect,  that  is,  for  such  as  by  being  re-baptized 
are  received  into  the  community  of  the  saints. 
We  may  fairly  take  the  above  doctrines  given 
by  Bullinger  as  representing,  on  the  whole, 
what  we  may  term  the  common  ground  of 
Anabaptism.  There  were,  however,  numerous 
variations  within  the  body.  Bullinger  cites  in 
the  first  place  the  u  Apostolic  Baptists."  These, 
he  says,  "  wander  through  the  land  without  staff, 
shoe,  satchel  or  money,  glorifying  their  heavenly 
call  to  the  office  of  preacher."  u  They  wash  each 
other's  feet,"  Franck  tells  us,  u  saying  that 
they  would  become  as  the  true  children."  They 
literally  followed  the  precept  that  he  who  would 
be  a  disciple  must  leave  house  and  home,  wife 
and  child.  Here  we  have  plainly,  as  Bullinger 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  33 

himself  remarks,  an  after-glow  of  the  tendencies 
which  three  centuries  earlier  called  the  friars 
into  being,  and  notably  the  Franciscans. 

Some  of  the  offshoots  of  that  order,  it  may 
be  remarked  in  passing,  like  other  of  the  earlier 
mediaeval  communist  sects,  the  "  Paterines,"  uThe 
Brothers  and  Sisters  of  the  Spirit,"  u  the  Bohemian 
Brethren,"  and  many  others,  anticipate  many  of 
the  doctrines  and  tendencies  which  manifested 
themselves  for  the  last  time  in  religious  form 
on  a  great  scale  in  history  in  the  Anabaptists 
of  the  1 6th  century.  Their  repudiation  of  all 
personal  property  was  emphatic ;  they  preached 
barefooted  and  in  coarse  garments,  wherever 
they  went.  With  a  greeting  of  peace,  they 
would  enter  a  cottage  and  begin  to  expound 
the  Bible  to  the  inmates.  The  effect  on  their 
hearers,  caused  by  their  words  glowing  with 
enthusiasm,  was  oftentimes  startling.  It  commonly 
required  but  a  few  hours  to  found  a  congrega- 
tion. Having  baptized  a  sufficient  number  of 
persons  to  constitute  a  nucleus,  the  Anabaptist 
apostle  would  take  his  staff  in  hand  and  journey 
farther  to  the  next  village  or  homestead. 

o 

Out   of  many  we  quote  one  instance  of  how 
the    sudden    sense    of   a   call    to   preach  would 

3 


34  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

sometimes  affect  these  new  converts.  A  peasant, 
Hans  Ber  of  Alten-Erlangen,  rose  from  his  bed 
one  night  and  began  to  put  on  his  clothes. 
u  Whither  goest  thou?  '  asked  his  wife.  UI 
know  not,  God  knoweth,"  was  his  answer.  She 
entreated  him  to  stay,  with  the  words:  uWhat 
evil  have  I  done  thee?  Stay  here  and  help  me 
nourish  my  little  children."  "  Dear  wife,"  he 
replied,"  harry  me  not  with  the  things  of  time. 
God  bless  thee.  I  will  from  hence,  that  I  may 
learn  the  will  of  the  Lord."  l 

Bullinger  is  clearly  wrong  in  reckoning  the 
"Apostolic  Baptists,"  as  he  terms  them,  as 
representing  any  special  section  of  the  body. 
They  were  obviously  no  more  than  the  most 
enthusiastic  and  energetic  members.  A  similar 
remark  applies  to  more  than  one  of  the  subse- 
quent divisions  into  which  Bullinger  would  par- 
tition the  Anabaptist  party. 

The  next  of  Bullinger's  so-called  Anabaptist 
sects  he  terms  the  "Separate  Spiritual  Baptists." 

1  Cornelius,  "  Geschichte  des  Miinsterischen  aufru/irs,"  II, 
pp.  48,  49.  For  a  similar  instance  of  the  effect  of  religious 
exaltation  on  the  mediaeval  peasant  mind,  see  "  German 
Society','  Appendix  B,  p.  270.  Its  immediate  occasion  was 
an  anti-Jewish  campaign  of  Hubmeyer  in  his  Catholic  days. 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  35 

These,  he  says,  carry  their  aloofness  from  the 
world  to  the  extent  that,  like  a  new  order  of 
monks,  they  regulate  their  clothes  alike  as  to 
their  form  and  size,  they  reject  all  costly  clothing, 
they  make  also  rules  as  to  eating,  drinking, 
sleeping,  resting,  standing  and  walking.  If  they 
saw  anyone  merry,  they  would  admonish  him 
in  the  name  of  the  Gospel.  After  his  usual 
refutation  of  the  particular  "errors"  in  question, 
Bullinger  passes  on  to  his  next  usect,"  which 
he  terms  the  uHoly  and  Sinless  Baptists."  Their 
special  distinction  consisted  in  the  dogma  that 
the  elect  could  not  sin.  They  carried  this  point 
so  far  as  to  strike  out  of  the  Paternoster  the 
words  "  forgive  us  our  trespasses."  They  appear 
to  have  held  a  kind  of  antinomian  doctrine, 
which  has  often  appeared  in  the  history 
of  theologico-ethical  speculation,  to  the  effect 
that  the  baptized  believer  might  do  what 
he  liked,  since,  if  he  sinned,  it  effected  the 
body  alone,  with  which  his  soul  had  no  more 
to  do  than  with  any  of  the  other  things  of  this 
world. 

The  next  of  Bullinger's  sects,  "  the  Silent 
Brothers,"  held  that  preaching  was  no  longer 
necessary  and  should  be  abolished.  "  This  is 


36  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  time,"  said  they,  "  of  which  the  apostle  Paul 
speaketh  when  he  saith :  l  there  is  a  time  to  be 
silent."  "Accordingly,"  says  Bullinger,  u  if  any 
man  should  ask  them  aught  of  religion,  they 
would  be  silent  and  give  him  no  answer." 

The  next  "sect"  designated  by  Bullinger  is 
the  "  Praying  Baptists,"  who,  he  says,  do  nothing 
else  but  pray.  Through  prayer,  they  maintain, 
all  evil  is  to  be  averted. 

What  Bullinger  calls  the  seventh  usect" 
(really  the  sixth  according  to  his  enumeration)  are 
the  "  Ecstatic  Brothers,"  also  called  " enthusiasti" 
and  " ecstatici"  who,  he  says,  were  very  numerous 
in  the  early  stages  of  the  movement.  They 
claimed  to  see  visions  and  to  dream  dreams, 
and  generally  to  be  the  direct  recipients  of 
divine  revelations.  When  under  the  influence 
of  the  Spirit,  their  countenances  were  contorted, 
they  made  deprecatory  gestures,  fell  on  the 
ground  as  in  a  fit,  and  finally  lay  stretched 
out,  as  though  they  were  dead.  When  they 
awoke  from  their  trance,  they  related  wonderful 
stories  of  what  they  had  seen  in  the  other 
world.  Amongst  other  admonitions  was,  of 
course,  always  the  assurance  that  re-baptism 
alone  was  pleasing  to  God,  but  infant  baptism 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  37 

a  service  of  the  devil,  and  that  none  that  were 
not  re-baptized  could  enter  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Some  of  them  alleged  having  seen  Zwingli 
in  hell.  They  prefaced  their  utterances  with 
the  words:  u  The  Father  hath  said  it:  it  is 
the  Father's  will !  "  They  all  agreed  in  declaring 
that  the  Day  of  the  Lord  was  at  hand,  some 
of  them  venturing  even  to  orive  the  date  and 

o  O 

the  hour  of  the  Last  Judgment.  They  would 
rush  through  the  streets,  crying :  u  We  proclaim 
the  day  of  the  Lord!  " 

We  next  come  to  the  "  Free  Brothers,"  called 
by  Bullinger  the  eighth  "sect."  They  took  the 
idea  of  Christian  freedom  in  its  literal  sense, 
holding  it  as  unchristian  to  pay  tithes  or  interest 
or  even  the  principal  of  debts.  They  declared 
all  serfdom  and  villeinage  to  be  abolished,  though 
there  were  some  among  them,  adds  Bullinger. 
u  who,  to  be  more  modest,  thought  that,  although 
not  justifiable  or  obligatory  in  itself,  yet  that 
one  should  observe  these  things  toward  the 
heathen,  to  the  end  that  they  might  have  no 
ground  or  cause  for  blaspheming  the  Word."  All 
were  agreed,  however,  that  amongst  Christians 
villeinage  had  ceased  to  exist.  Among  these 
Free  Brethren,  according  to  Bullinger,  there 


38  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

were  those  who  persuaded  credulous  women  that 
it  was  impossible  for  them  to  be  saved  without 
sacrificing  their  virtue,  for,  said  they,  the  Lord 
hath  said,  that  only  he  who  was  willing  to  lose 
all  he  held  dear  might  enter  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven.  Shame  and  disgrace  must  be  borne 
for  the  sake  of  Christ,  for  had  not  Christ  said 
that  the  publicans  and  the  harlots  should  enter 
first  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  before  the 
righteous,  by  which  was  plainly  meant  that 
women  should  become  harlots,  as,  by  so  doing 
they  would  rank  in  Heaven  before  those  who 
were  deemed  by  the  world  to  be  pious  women. 
The  antinomian  doctrine  of  course  came  in  here, 
according  to  which,  for  the  re-baptized,  sin  was 
impossible,  as  no  bodily  act  could  affect  the 
soul  of  the  believer.  "  For  the  women  did  sin 
in  having  intercourse  with  their  husbands,  who 
were  still  heathens,  but  they  did  not  sin  when 
having  intercourse  with  '  brethren ',  because  in 
that  case  there  was  a  spiritual  bond  between 
them."  Those  who  held  these  views,  however, 
were  called  by  many  of  their  co-religionists 
"wild  brothers." 

Bullinger's     ninth    order    of   the    Anabaptists 
consists   of  another  sort  of  Free  Brothers,  who 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE  39 


preached  that  all  outward  forms  were  to  the 
believer  indifferent;  public  worship,  preaching, 
sacraments  were  all  of  no  effect,  and  for  those 
who  were  saved,  so  much  useless  lumber.  They 
regarded  it  also  as  indifferent,  whether  faith 
were  confessed  or  not.  If  danger  threatened,  it 
was  admissible  to  conceal  one's  faith,  for,  said 
they,  if  one  have  the  truth  in  one's  heart,  it 
suffices  before  God,  and  what  is  proclaimed 
before  men  is  indifferent.  As  a  consequence  it 
was,  they  said,  useless  for  men  to  deliver  them- 
selves over  to  torture  and  death  for  the  sake 
of  their  belief,  for  God  is  not  made  greater  by 
our  suffering,  neither  does  he  desire  our  death; 
nay,  nor  even  that  we  forsake  wife  and  child.  The 
corollary  was  obvious,  to  wit,  that  those  who 
were  at  Rome,  should  do  as  Rome  does,  that 
the  outward  forms  and  observances  enjoined  by 
the  authority  under  whose  jurisdiction  the  be- 
liever found  himself,  should  be  observed.  The 
chief  apostle  of  this  doctrine  was  one  David 
Georg,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  more  later. 

The  tenth  "sect"  in  Bullinger's  enumeration  is 
the  Hutian  Brothers,  that  is  the  followers  of  Johan- 
nes Hut.  Johannes  Hut  soon  abandoned  the  ori- 
ginal non-resistance  doctrine  of  the  Anabaptists, 


40  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 

in  favor  of  the  theory,  that  they,  as  the  living 
representatives  of  the  Chosen  People,  were 
commissioned  like  the  Israelites  of  old  to  root 
out  the  heathen  that  then  ruled  the  world,  as 
the  Israelites  had  once  destroyed  the  godless 
Canaanites.  The  Lord,  said  he,  will  show  them 
a  proper  time,  when  this  work  of  his  shall  be 
accomplished.  He  and  his  followers  were  un- 
tiring in  proclaiming  the  approaching  day  of 
the  Lord's  Vengeance  on  the  powers  of  this 
world.  In  accordance  with  this  view,  they 
took  no  thought  for  their  property  or  liveli- 
hood. The  Communistic  tendency,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  was  strongly  represented  among 
them. 

Bullinger's  "eleventh  sect"  is  the  "Augustan 
Baptists,"  taking  their  name  from  a  preacher 
named  Augustin  Heling  from  Bohemia.  Like 
the  Hutians,  says  Bullinger,  "  they  prefer  dreams 
to  the  written  word  of  God."  They  hold  that 
Heaven  remains  closed  till  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
There  is,  say  they,  neither  saint  in  Heaven  nor 
godless  in  Hell,  but  each  will  be  preserved,  till 
that  time,  in  a  certain  place,  they  knew  not 
where.  At  the  last  day  of  judgment,  however, 
they  will  be  severally  relegated  to  their  own 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  41 

place.  This  terminates  the  series  of  the  various 
doctrines  and  tendencies  of  the  Anabaptist 
party,  and  of  the  sections  embodying  them. 

The  u  twelfth  sect"  of  Bullinger,  consisting 
simply  in  the  great  Anabaptist  movement  at 
Miinster,  must  be  taken  as  expressing  the  various 
tendencies  already  enumerated,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  which  may  be  traced  prominently  in  the 
course  of  the  history  of  the  Miinster  insurrection. 
Bullingers  thirteenth  and  concluding  sect  has 
nothing  specially  to  do  with  the  Anabaptists, 
but  consists  of  Michael  Servet  and  those 
who  followed  him  in  his  denial  of  the  dogma 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  divinity  of  Christ ;  among 
whom,  Bullinger  alleges,  there  were  many 
Anabaptists.  This  was  undoubtedly  the  case, 
since  the  tendency  of  Anabaptism  generally 
was  in  the  direction  of  breaking  through 
trammels  of  all  kinds,  dogmatic,  ceremonial, 
and  ecclesiastical ;  but  we  can  hardly  regard 
it  as  specially  distinctive  of  the  Anabaptist 
movement,  since  it  was  common  to  other 
reforming-  sects  and  does  not  seem  to  have 

o 

been,  as  in  their  case,  embodied  in  any  definite 
formula  or  confession  of  faith. 

It   will   be.  observed  that  many  of  these  divi- 


42  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

sions,  as  given  by  Bullinger,  overlap  each  other 
in  more  ways  than  one.  We  find  certain  tenden- 
cies running  through  them  all,  and  it  would  not 

O  O 

be  difficult  to  deduce  the  divergencies,  even 
when  they  seem  to  contradict  one  another,  from 
the  fundamental  positions  of  the  Inner  Light  as 
the  last  court  of  appeal,  from  the  right  of 
private  interpretation  of  Scripture,  from  the 
contempt  for  all  human  authority  secular  or 
ecclesiastical,  and  from  the  claim  of  the  Brethren 
to  be  the  chosen  people  separate  from  the 
world  and  under  the  immediate  guidance  of 

O 

God  alone. 

The  second  chief  contemporary  authority  on 
the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Anabaptists 
is  Sebastian  Franck.  He  agrees  in  the  main 
with  the  account  of  Bullinger,  always  taking 
into  consideration  the  fact  that  Bullinger  was  a 
bitter  opponent  of  the  new  sect  in  all  its  forms 
and  manifestations.  Franck,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  less  bitter  in  his  hostility,  at  least  to  the 
milder  aspects  of  Anabaptist  theory  and  practice. 
This,  as  the  reader  will  have  already  seen,  was  in 
the  last  resort  simply  a  recrudescence  over  a 
wider  area,  and  on  an  extended  scale,  of  tenden- 
cies and  even  actual  doctrines,  that  we  meet 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  43 

with  springing  up  in  different  places  and  at 
different  times  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
which  were  increasing  in  intensity  and  in  fre- 
quency from  the  beginning  of  the  last  half  of 
the  1 5th  century  onwards  till  the  great  upheaval 
known  as  the  Reformation. 

Sebastian  Franck's  account  is  contained  in  the 
chapter  of  his  "  Chronik  "  entitled :  u  Articles  and 
doctrines  of  the  Anabaptists  condemned  as 
heresies  by  the  Pope  as  well  as  by  diverse 
other  sects."  Franck  does  not  adopt  Bullinger's 
classification  of  the  various  Anabaptist  sects ; 
but  his  account,  in  substance,  tallies  almost  down 
to  the  minutest  detail  with  that  of  Bullinger. 
Some,  he  says,  recognizing  re-baptism  as  essen- 
tial, will  not  acknowledge  anyone  as  brother 
who  has  not  been  re-baptized.  Others  again, 
regarding  themselves  as  saints  and  elect,  form 
a  special  community,  holding  all  property  in 
common ;  others  again,  confine  themselves  to  a 
recognition  of  the  duty  of  assisting  Brethren  in 
want.  The  Brother  in  want,  however,  is  sup- 
posed to  be  unwilling  to  receive  this  charity.  u  But 
there  is  in  this  matter,"  says  Franck,  "  much 
hypocrisy,  faithlessness  and  lying,  as  they  them- 
selves are  well  aware."  In  some  places  as  in 


44  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Austerlitz,  in  Moravia,  they  have  a  common 
store  from  which  the  steward  distributes  to  each 
that  which  he  needs;  but  whether  the  distribu- 
tion be  just,  Franck  says,  he  has  not  investigated. 
They  denounce  other  Brethren,  he  says,  whom 
they  deem  not  to  be  walking  in  the  right  path, 
and  this  is  common  with  them,  since  every 
community  among  them  outlaws  other  Brethren, 
who  do  not  subscribe  to  its  views.  Other  Bap- 
tists u  hold  the  Brotherhood  and  common  holding 
of  goods  we  have  just  cited,  as  of  no  moment, 
deeming  it  needless  and  presumptuous  on  the 
part  of  those  Brethren  who  give  themselves  out 
for  perfect  Christians  and  despise  others.  In 
this  sect  every  man  worketh  for  himself,  and 
the  members  do  help  and  question  each  other, 
and  give  their  hand  in  a  manner,  as  seemeth 
to  me,  to  savour  of  hypocrisy,  albeit  I  hold  no 
man  to  blame  who  doeth  such  things  with  sin- 
cerity." God  hath  stopped  the  ears  of  him, 
they  say,  who  doth  not  answer  uyea"  to  all 
their  doctrines.  At  the  first  they  pray  for  him, 
but  if  he  be  not  speedily  converted  they  cast 
him  out.  Some,  says  Franck,  will  not  make 
merry  on  the  Sunday  because  they  hold  it  a 
feast-day  and  ordination  of  Antichrist,  while 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  45 

others  again  do  not  object  to  the  customary 
spending  of  Sunday,  but  keep  it  for  the  love 
of  man,  and  deny  that  the  Scripture  says  that 
they  should  separate  themselves  in  this  way 
from  the  rest  of  the  world.  Many  of  them  explain 
the  Scriptures  in  such  wise  that  to  the  pure  all 
things  are  pure.  Some  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  heathen ;  they  have  rules  for  fasting, 
feasting,  living,  eating,  drinking  and  walking ; 
also  as  to  clothes,  as  to  how  many  folds  are 
lawful  in  an  apron.  They  quote  Romans  XII : 
u  Ye  shall  not  conform  to  this  world,  for  friendship 
with  the  world  is  enmity  with  God." 

Franck  goes  on  to  notice  other  sects  (treated 
of  by  Bullinger),  as  his  so-called  Apostolic  Baptists, 
who  aim  at  practising  Scripture  literally,  washing 
each  other's  feet,  and  journeying  about  from 
place  to  place  preaching,  etc. ;  and  the  Free 
Baptists,  who  maintain  that,  being  saved,  they 
can  commit  no  evil,  etc.  The  greater  part,  he 
says,  hold  that  the  way  to  salvation  is  only 
through  suffering  and  an  ascetic  life.  He  also 
refers  to  the  Silent  Brothers,  who  do  not  be- 
lieve in  preaching;  the  forerunners  apparently 
of  the  English  Quakers  of  more  than  a  century 
later.  He  also  speaks  of  those  who  go  into 


46  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

ecstacies  and  trances,  and  who,  on  recovering, 
prophesy  and  profess  to  have  been  translated 
into  another  world.  This  faculty  they  claim  to 
have  in  common  with  the  apostle  Paul,  who 
says  he  was  carried  into  the  third  heaven. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Sebastian  Franck  confirms 
in  every  respect  Bullinger's  statements  with 
regard  to  the  Anabaptist  party.  From  both 
writers  it  is  clear  that,  as  in  the  case  of  earlier 
sects  having  similar  tendencies,  such  as  the 
Taborites  and  Bohemian  Brethren,  there  was  a 
thorough-going  or  extreme,  and  a  moderate  or 
opportunist  party.  A  domestic  communism  was 
one  of  the  leading;  characteristics  of  the  former, 

o 

as  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  private  pro- 
perty up  to  a  certain  point,  subject  to  the  duty 
of  almsgiving  to  needy  Brethren,  was  that  of 
the  latter. 

There  was  a  certain  body  of  the  Brethren 
who,  according  to  Franck,  wished  to  carry  their 
communism  into  the  matter  of  wives,  but,  he 
says,  they  were  soon  suppressed  by  the  other 
Brethren.  Hans  Hut  and  Ludwig  Hatzer  are 
stated  to  have  held  and  propagated  this  view. 
We  have  already  seen  what  Bullinger  has  to  say 
as  to  the  views  on  sexual  matters  of  certain  of 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  47 

the  Brethren.  Whether  Franck  refers  to  these  same 
followers  of  Hut  and  Hatzer  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
Similar  doctrines  and  practices  had  also  obtained 
among  the  "  Adamites  "  in  Bohemia  the  century 
before,  as  also  among  the  "  Brothers  and  Sisters, 
of  the  free  Spirit"  in  the  earlier  Middle  Ages. 
The  general  arrangements  of  the  Anabaptist 
communities  were  very  simple ;  re-baptism  was 
a  sign  of  reception  into  the  Brotherhood  of 
believers.  Every  community  had  its  superin- 
tendent, who  was  called  Teacher  or  Shepherd. 
He  was  sometimes  designated  by  the  original 
founder  of  the  brotherhood  in  question,  and  was 
sometimes  chosen  by  the  body  of  the  members. 
Special  persons  were  also  appointed  for  looking 
after  the  poor,  and  those  Brethren  having  the 
gift  of  oratory  were  often  sent  forth  to  spread  the 
Word  as  apostles.  The  function  of  the  Shepherd 
was  teaching,  exhortation  and  prayer.  He  also 
had  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  bread-breaking 
and  to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  expulsion  on 
recalcitrant  members  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
munity. These  simple  forms  were,  however,  the 
outward  indications.  Behind  the  meetings  of 
the  community  for  Bible  reading  and  mutual 
exhortation,  behind  the  breaking  of  bread,  the 


48  JRISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Anabaptist  "  Sacrament,"  were  duties  and  obli- 
gations and  a  general  regulation  of  life  on  the 
basis  of  the  common  principles,  a  regulation  en- 
forced by  the  moral  influence  of  the  community 
upon  each  member.  The  rules  relating  to  property, 
which  always  involved  at  least  the  duty  of 
assisting  the  community  alike  individually  and 
collectively,  were  obligatory  upon  every  member. 
These  rules  ranged,  as  we  have  seen,  from  a 
kind  of  compulsory  almsgiving  to  complete 
communism.  Then  there  was  prohibition  of 
swearing,  of  the  bearing  of  the  sword,  of  the  exer- 
cise of  any  governmental  function,  of  going  to 
law.  To  crown  all,  in  a  vast  majority  of  Ana- 
baptist communities,  there  was  the  express  in- 
junction upon  all  members  to  keep  separate  from 
the  world,  to  have  no  part  nor  lot  with  the 
heathen,  that  is,  with  non-baptists.  All  who 
were  without  the  fold  were  declared  to  be  an 
abomination  to  God.  This  was  carried  so  far 
that  even  the  wine-shops  and  the  guild-rooms 
were  for  the  most  part  " taboo"  to  the  Brother. 
The  Anabaptists  dressed  simply  in  plain  home- 
spun, without  ornament  or  trimming  of  any  de- 
scription. They  called  each  other  "brother"  and 
"sister,"  and  employed  as  their  greeting  the 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  49 

words  u  Peace  be  with  thee,"  accompanied  by 
the  holy  kiss. 

Their  sacrament  of  bread-breaking,  which, 
with  the  exception  of  baptism,  was  their  only 
ceremony,  was  regarded  as  symbolical  of  the 
renewal  of  the  covenant  with  God,  and  the 
confirmation  of  brotherly  love  amongst  them- 
selves. This  was  usually  preceded  by  a  public 
confession  of  sins  and  by  an  exhortation  on  the 
part  of  the  Shepherd,  who,  in  extreme  cases, 
would  of  his  own  initiative  exclude  a  sinning 
member  from  the  ceremony.  After  the  bread- 
breaking  followed  the  sermon  with  its  exhor- 
tation to  mutual  forbearance  and  to  the  regard- 

o 

ing  of  all  things  temporal  or  spiritual  as  a 
common  possession  of  the  Brethren;  to  prayer 
for  enemies,  and  to  the  returning  of  good  for 
evil.  The  ceremony  of  bread-breaking  was 
frequently  performed  in  times  of  persecution, 
and  almost  invariably  when  any  great  danger 
threatened. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
Anabaptists  recognized  no  relation  to  the  State 
as  such.  The  State,  in  their  opinion,  belonged 
to  the  realm  of  darkness  with  which  the  Brethren 
had  nothing  in  common.  It  was  only  designed  by 

4 


50  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 


God  as  a  scourge  for  true  Christians.  The 
Brethren  should  obey  it  rather  too  much  than 
too  little,  should  quietly  bear  tribulation  and 
persecution,  awaiting  the  day  of  the  Lord,  which 
was  fast  approaching.  Its  signs  were  everywhere 
apparent,  the  Gospel  everywhere  preached  and 
persecution  suffered  for  the  name  of  Christ. 
The  fig  tree  was  blooming,  they  said,  the  sum- 
mer was  nigh  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  at 
hand  (Cornelius,  u  Gcsckickte  des  MiinsteriscJicn 
Aufruhrs"  II,  pp.  8—51). 

But  owing  to  the  want  of  united  organization, 
to  the  heterogeneity  of  the  elements  which 
soon  became  absorbed  into  the  party,  to  the 
nature  of  its  fundamental  dogmas  and  other 
causes,  a  tendency  to  rupture  early  showed  itself. 
The  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and  obedience 
to  authority  was,  as  already  mentioned,  by  no 
means  everywhere  accepted  in  its  literal  sense. 
The  question  of  property-holding  was,  as  may 
be  imagined,  a  great  bone  of  contention.  That 
of  the  right  or  duty  of  cohabitation  with  a  hus- 
band or  wife  (as  the  case  might  be)  who  was 
outside  the  fold,  was  also  hotly  debated.  In 
their  theology  it  was  the  same  with  the  Anabap- 
tists. They  were  not  bound  together  by  any 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  51 

formal  theological  confession  of  faith.     Without 

o 

the  infringement  of  any  recognized  principle  of 
the  body,  Johannes  Denck  could  preach  the 
doctrine  of  the  ultimate  salvation  of  the  damned 
and  Ludwig  Hatzer  his  denial  of  the  dogma  of 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  As  we  have  seen,  there 
were  even  some  communities  or  congregations 
who  declared  all  ceremonies,  not  excepting  bap- 
tism and  bread-breaking,  the  central  and  the 
only  pillars  of  the  Anabaptist  cultus,  as  super- 
fluous. So  great,  indeed,  was  the  divergence, 
alike  in  doctrine  and  practice,  between  the  diffe- 
rent Anabaptist  communities  that  Franck,  with 
allowable  exaggeration,  intimates  that  they  had 
as  many  different  sects  as  they  had  shepherds 
or  superintendents,  and  concludes  with  the  ob- 
servation :  "  There  are  many  more  sects  and 
opinions,  which  I  do  not  all  know  and  cannot 
describe,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  not 
two  to  be  found  who  agree  with  each  other  on 
all  points." 

The  Anabaptist  Church  or  party  was,  owing 
to  the  conditions  of  the  time,  kept  in  a  continual 
state  of  flux  as  regards  its  constituents.  The 
communities  frequently  changed  alike  in  member- 
ship as  in  shepherds.  In  the  most  favorable 


52  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

case  it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  hold  any 
number  of  different  communities  together,  even 
imperfectly,  while  with  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
sect  anything  like  cohesion  of  the  body  became 
out  of  the  question. 

The  numerous  peripatetic  preachers  or  apo- 
stles would  in  many  cases  enter  a  village  or 
marketplace,  a  workshop  or  the  public  room  of 
a  hostelry,  preach  to  all  who  would  hear,  found 
a  congregation  or  community,  few  or  many,  as 
the  case  might  be,  baptize,  "break  bread," 
possibly  appoint  a  shepherd  or  superintendent 
from  among  the  more  zealous  of  their  converts, 
and  after  a  few  hours  pass  on  their  way  to  repeat 
the  same  process  in  the  next  town  or  village. 
The  communities  thus  left  to  themselves  naturally 
developed  various  tendencies  in  accordance  with 
the  character  of  the  leading  spirit  among  them. 

The  success  of  the  itinerant  missionaries  of 
course  pre-supposed  a  soil  well  prepared  to 
receive  the  seed,  often  sown  in  a  very  per- 
functory fashion.  The  doctrines  they  had  to 
offer,  belonged  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  time. 
(Compare  the  remarks  made  on  religious  and 
political  propaganda  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  "  Ger- 
man Society"  pp.  87 — 91). 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  53 

Although  not  so  systematic  in  his  attempt  to 
delineate  the  theories  and  practices  of  the  Ana- 
baptists as  either  Bullinger  or  Franck,  we  have 
a  third  most  important  and  interesting  eye- 
witness of  events  connected  with  the  movement 
in  Johannes  Kessler,  a  well-known  theologian  of 
the  time  and  a  native  of  St.  Gallen.  Kessler 
in  his  u Sabbata"  a  chronicle  of  the  events 
between  1523  and  1539,  devotes  considerable 
space  to  interesting  details  concerning  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Anabaptists,  especially  in  his  native 
territory.  l 

After  describing  the  origin  of  Anabaptism  in 
Zurich  and  its  general  character,  in  terms  similar 
to  those  of  Bullinger  and  Franck,  Kessler  proceeds 
to  relate  incidents  in  its  career  in  St.  Gallen  and 
Appenzell.  His  account  may  fairly  be  taken  as 
typically  illustrative  of  the  nature  of  the  new 
movement,  and  the  effects  produced  by  its  doc- 
trines on  overwrought  or  unhinged  temperaments 
so  common  in  that  period  of  religious  excitement 
and  exaltation.  A  certain  Wolfgang  Wolimann, 

1  We  here  quote  from  the  edition  of  the  "  Sabbata"  edited 
by  Dr.  Ernst  Goetsinger,  St.  Gallen,  1870.  The  facts  relating 
to  the  Anabaptists  referred  to  in  the  text  will  be  found  in 
Book  III,  pp.  225—305. 


54  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

a  citizen  of  St.  Gallen,  who  had  previously 
preached  against  infant  baptism,  by  chance  met 
Konrad  Grebel  on  a  journey  to  Schaffhausen, 
and  under  the  latter's  instructions  accepted  the 
new  doctrines  with  such  enthusiasm  that  he  was 
not  satisfied  with  having  a  bowl  of  water  emptied 
over  his  head  in  the  usual  fashion,  but  insisted 
upon  undressing  and  upon  his  whole  body  being 
ducked  in  the  Rhine  by  Grebel.  This  was  the 
origin  of  baptism  by  immersion.  On  his  return 
home  he  boasted  of  revelations  received,  with 
the  result  of  creating  amongst  various  townspeople 
a  violent  curiosity  to  hear  him.  Day  and  place 
were  fixed:  the  day,  the  loth  of  March;  the 
place,  the  Weavers'  guild-room  on  the  market- 
place of  St.  Gallen.  A  large  number  were 
assembled,  when  Wolimann,~entering,  began  his 
discourse  with  the  declaration  that  the  heavenly 
Father  had  revealed  to  him  that  he  should  not 
preach  His  Word  in  the  churches,  for,  said  he, 
"there  is  no  truth  preached,  neither  may  the 
truth  be  preached  there."  Thereupon  a  discus- 
sion arose,  in  which  it  was  pointed  out  that  the 
Apostles  were  willing  to  preach  the  word  in  the 
temple  and  synagogues ;  that  hence  there  was 
no  reason  why  Wolimann  should  not  do  so ; 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  55 

but  Wolimann  was  obdurate  and  succeeded  in 
convincing  a  certain  number  of  those  present, 
who,  henceforward  shunned  the  churches  as  the 
portals  of  hell,  holding  their  meetings  in  houses, 
fields,  and  woods.  This,  says  Kessler,  was  the 
first  split  in  the  Evangelical  Church  of  St.  Gallen 
and  the  beginning  of  Anabaptism  in  that  region. 
A  few  days  later,  Konrad  Grebel,  who,  as  we 
know,  had  been  banished  from  Zurich  in  January, 
and  had  been  for  several  weeks  past  proselytizing 
the  northern  territories  of  Switzerland,  arrived 
himself  in  St.  Gallen.  The  followers  of  Wolimann, 
and  indeed  all  those  who  were  disaffected  towards 
the  official  Protestantism,  streamed  out  at  the 
city  gate  on  the  Sunday,  which  happened  to  be 
Palm  Sunday,  to  meet  the  famous  sectary,  which 
they  did  in  a  village  hard  by.  Many  were  there 
and  then  re-baptized.  Grebel  was  then  taken 
to  the  Weavers  '  guild-room.  The  weavers  were 
well  to  the  fore  in  this  movement  as  in  other 
previous  similar  movements.  Grebel  held  forth 
on  infant  baptism  and  the  Bible.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  averse  to  anything  like 
disputation,  alleging  that  those  who  wished  to 
have  converse  with  him  should  come  to  him 
"  naked"  as  he  expressed  it,  by  which  he  meant 


56  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

with    a   humble    and   teachable    disposition    and 
not  with  a  desire  to  dispute. 

The  St.  Gallen  communist  soon  began  actual 
preaching  in  the  neighbouring  villages  and  small 
towns.  The  Evangelical  preachers  were  denounc- 
ed, and  their  hearers  persuaded  to  drive  them 
from  their  parishes.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the 
great  subject  of  the  polemic  was  infant  baptism. 
u Because,"  says  Kessler,  "they  are  themselves 
unlearned,  they  despise  all  learning,  proclaiming 
that  revelation  and  the  inner  light  come  only  to 
the  simple  and  ignorant."  At  the  same  time 
he  admits  that  "  their  walk  and  conversation  are 
throughout  pious,  holy,  and  blameless."  They 
avoided  costly  apparel,  despising  luxurious  eating 
and  drinking,  clothed  themselves  with  rough 
cloth,  covering  their  heads  with  slouch  hats 
Their  way  and  their  manner  were  humble.  u  They 
carry  no  weapon,  neither  sword  nor  dagger, 
save  it  be  a  broken  bread-knife,  declaring  that 
the  sheep  durst  not  wear  the  wolf's  clothing. 
They  swear  not,  nay,  not  even  take  they  the 
civic  oath  to  any  authority;  and  should  one  of 
them  transgress  in  this,  he  will  be  banished  by 
them,  for  there  is  a  daily  purging  of  members 
among  them.  In  speech  and  disputation  they 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  57 

are  grim  and  bitter  and  are  withal  so  stubborn  that 
they  are  willing  to  die  for  that  which  they  maintain. 
They  proclaim  more  insistently  justification  by 
works  than  even  the  Papists."  ("  Sabbata^  III, 
p.  232).  Yet  their  numbers  daily  increased.  Of 
the  exterior  circumstances  of  the  Anabaptist  Church 
of  St.  Gallen  we  have,  however,  spoken  in  the 
last  chapter.  We  are  here  only  concerned  with 
the  details  of  the  inner  life  of  the  movement 
preserved  for  us  by  Kessler,  as  illustrating  its 
character  generally. 

It  is  related  how  one  of  the  new  sect,  a 
peasant,  hailing  from  the  village  of  Zollikon, 
near  Zurich,  appeared,  demanding  that  all  books 
should  be  burned  as  vain  and  pernicious  products 
of  mere  human  learning  This  he  attempted  to 
carry  out;  many  persons  bringing  him  their 
literary  chattels  to  increase  his  bonfire.  This 
same  peasant,  Hans  Fessler  by  name,  once  rose 
up  in  the  church  at  Zurich  as  Zwingli  was  preach- 
ing, and  shouted :  u  Zwingli,  I  adjure  thee  by 
the  living  God  that  thou  dost  declare  the  truth." 
Zwingli  at  first  took  no  notice,  going  on  with 
his  discourse ;  but  as  Fessler  continued  the  dis- 
turbance Zwingli  finally  answered :  u  So  then  I 
will  declare  the  truth  unto  thee,  that  thou  art 


58  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

a  rude,  ill-bred  tumultuous  peasant."  This  seemed 
to  be  regarded  by  the  congregation  as  a  distinct 
score  of  Zwingli,  and,  according  to  our  author, 
the  conduct  of  the  interrupter  did  harm  to  the 
cause  in  Zurich. 

One  of  the  Zurich  Brethren  preached  the  new 
gospel  far  and  wide  in  the  Appenzell  territory 
with  the  gloss  of  his  own  that  as  they  would 
follow  Christ  they  must  obey  his  injunction  that 
they  were  to  become  as  little  children,  if  they 
wished  to  possess  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Accordingly  many  persons,  especially  women, 
began  to  conduct  themselves  as  though  they 
were  children,  aping  childish  ways,  jumping  up, 
clapping  their  hands,  sitting  down  naked  on  the 
ground,  letting  themselves  be  washed  like  child- 
ren, throwing  apples  at  each  other,  stringing 
fir-cones  on  a  piece  of  thread,  and  the  better 
they  succeeded  in  acting  the  part  of  children 
the  more  closely  they  believed  themselves  to  be 
following  Christ's  word.  Women  cut  their  hair 
off  round  their  ears  like  men,  holding  it  for 
vanity  and  foolishness  to  plait  their  tresses, 
"  but,"  observes  Kessler,  "  there  was  more  vanity 
displayed,  and  more  needless  labor  given  in  the 
endeavour  to  hold  the  ends  together  behind  the 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  59 

ears  with  silk  ribbons  than  though  they  had 
worn  their  hair  like  other  women." 

Other  prophets  arose  among  the  Brethren, 
emphasizing  various  points  or  starting  new  inter- 
pretations. The  New  Testament  should  be  received 
in  the  spirit  and  not  in  the  letter,  said  they. 
Some  of  them  even  went  so  far  as  to  throw 
their  Bibles  into  the  fire,  saying  that  "  the  letter 
killeth,  but  the  spirit  maketh  alive,"  and  that 
u  God  would  write  his  law  in  their  hearts." 
Thereupon  they  would  sit  still,  declaring  that 
men  had  no  free  will,  but  that  God  worked 
everything  in  them,  and  that  they  would  wait 
till  God  spoke  to  them.  For  the  same  reason 
they  refused  to  pray,  saying  that  God  would 
give  them  what  was  right  without  their  asking. 
They  neither  greeted  anyone  nor  answered  a 
greeting,  but  went  about  in  silence. 

Kessler  goes  on  to  relate  cases  of  violent 
religious  mania  as  occurring  amongst  the  Ana- 
baptists. Margeretha  Hattinger  of  Zollikon  near 
Zurich,  declaring  that  she  was  God,  began  to 
utter  meaningless  sounds.  A  native  of  St.  Gallen, 
Magdalena  Muller  by  name,  declared  that  she 
was  Christ,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life. 
Two  companions  of  hers  also  became  infected, 


60  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

falling  on  the  ground  and  raving.  After  lying 
for  two  or  three  hours  unconscious,  one  of  them 
declared  that  she  had  heard  God's  living  voice. 
This  woman,  with  others,  subsequently  entered 
houses  and  workrooms,  calling  upon  all  to  meet 
outside  the  town  at  a  given  place.  Here  the 
woman,  Frena  Bumenin  by  name,  announced 
that  she  was  destined  to  give  birth  to  the  Anti- 
christ, and  thereupon  proceeded  to  divest  herself 
of  her  clothing,  and  finally  stood  naked  before 
the  assembled  crowd.  In  the  night  she  rushed 
forth,  notwithstanding  that  it  was  mid-winter, 
with  frost  and  snow  on  the  ground,  and  plunged 
into  the  neighbouring  brook.  At  last  she  was 
arrested  and  brought  back  into  the  town,  shrieking 
continuously  the  while  that  the  day  of  the  Lord 
was  at  hand.  The  biirgermeister  and  council 
having  in  vain  endeavoured  to  persuade  her  to 
go  home  to  Appenzell,  her  native  place,  she  was 
imprisoned  in  a  building  just  outside  the  town- 
walls.  Here  her  conduct  was  so  outrageous  that 

O 

the  worthy  Kessler  prefers  to  omit  any  mention 
thereof,  in  order  "  not  to  trouble  the  Spirit  of 
the  Christian  reader."  On  being  liberated,  she 
roamed  through  the  Appenzell  territories,  joining 
herself  to  the  already  excited  peasants  who  came 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  61 

in  her  way.  Many  of  these  peasants  destroyed 
their  own  property  or  cast  it  out  of  the  door 
of  their  homesteads,  saying  that  God  would 
care  for  them. 

The  whole  territory  seems  to  have  been 
infected  with  an  epidemic  of  mania.  Women 
would  rush  without  their  clothes  to  the  meetings 

o 

of  the  Brethren,  and  only  after  some  time 
become  conscious  that  they  were  naked.  The 
suppression  of  the  public  assemblies  only  led 
to  meetings  being  held  by  night  in  the  home- 
steads. The  seizures,  the  fallings  on  the  ground 
and  ravings,  repeated  themselves  again  and 
again.  One  of  those  thus  afflicted  told  Kessler 
that  the  convulsions,  in  most  cases,  occurred 
against  the  will  of  the  patient,  many  children 
of  tender  years  being  also  seized.  A  certain 
man,  Thomas  Schugger  by  name,  set  up  as  a 
prophet,  and  after  many  extraordinary  doings 
ended  by  persuading  his  brother  Leonhardt  to 
let  him  bind  him.  The  following  night  Leon- 
hardt declared  to  Thomas  that  it  was  the  Lord's 
will  that  he  should  cut  off  his  (Leonhardt's)  head, 
which  he  did  the  next  morning.  Afterwards, 
covered  only  with  a  shirt,  he  rushed  into  the 
houses  of  certain  eminent  citizens.  He  was 


62  XISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 


arrested  and  executed  eight  days  subsequently 
outside  the  walls.  This  did  not  prevent  certain 
of  his  followers  from  continuing  to  represent  the 
crime  as  inspired  by  God. 

Kessler  relates  that  many  went  from  the 
extreme  of  simplicity  in  clothing  to  that  of 
costliness.  He  makes  also  startling  statements 

o 

as  to  the  sensuality  practised  by  the  sectaries 
on  the  plea  that  their  souls  were  dead  to  the 
flesh  and  that  all  that  the  flesh  did  was  by  the 
will  of  God.  He  relates  that  two  young  women 
were  arrested  and  confessed  to  having  prostituted 
themselves  under  the  mantle  of  the  Gospel. 
They  appear  to  have  recanted,  but  were  never- 
theless condemned  to  carry  a  large  stone  on 
a  pole  from  gate  to  gate  round  the  town  to 
the  RatJihaus. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  although 
religious  abberation,  interspersed  with  cases  of 
actual  insanity  and  even  acute  mania,  was 
undoubtedly  common  throughout  the  whole  Ana- 
baptist movement,  that  this  represented  the 
teaching  and  practices  of  the  great  mass  of 
the  Brethren. 

We  have  given  the  substance  of  Johannes 
Kessler's  account  of  the  Anabaptists  in  northern 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  63 

Switzerland  and  especially  in  St.  Gallen  at  some 
length,  as  that  of  a  contemporary  and  in  many 
cases  an  eye-witness.  It  is  especially  interesting 
as  such,  but  it  must  of  course  be  remembered 
that,  though  his  account  may  in  the  main  be 
true,  Kessler  is  a  hostile  witness.  Even  he  him- 
self admits  that  the  original  heads  of  the  move- 

O 

ment,    such  as  Konrad  Grebel  and  Felix  Manz, 
repudiated    entirely    much   of  the  teaching  and 
practice  that  had  been  grafted  on  to  their  doc- 
trine.    The    Anabaptist  theory,  notwithstanding 
that   it    always   had   the   tendency  from  first  to 
last,   like   all  similar  movements,  to  run  on  oc- 
casion    into     this     class    of    excess,    producing 
in   susceptible   subjects  religious  mania,  moved, 
as    a    whole,    within    the   limits   of  the  general 
religious  consciousness  of  the  age,  and  represent- 
ed   a    genuine   attempt   to   carry   out   logically, 
principles   of  the    Gospel-teaching  and  the  idea 
of  a  return  to  a  supposed  primitive  Christianity, 
common,    more    or   less,    (at  least  theologically) 
to  all  the  leaders  of  the  reformation.     It  was  a 
movement   constituted    in    the   main  of  the  dis- 
inherited  classes  of  the  time,  the  peasants,  the 
poorer   handicraftsmen    and   the  journeymen  of 
the  towns,  to  whose  oppressed  position,  economi- 


64  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

cally  and  politically,  it  powerfully  appealed.  It 
was  thus  pre-eminently  a  class-movement  closely 
interwoven  with  the  material  conditions  affecting 
vast  sections  of  the  population  in  that  period 
of  the  closing  Middle  Ages.  Like  its  immediate 
precursor,  the  movement  which  gave  rise  to  the 
great  Peasants  War  of  1525,  it  appeared  in  a 
mediaeval  garb ;  but,  as  before  said,  the  tenden- 
cies, which  in  earlier  periods  of  the  Middle 
Ages  had  been  sporadic  and  transitory,  now 
became  general  and  showed  symptoms  of  ac- 
quiring permanency. 

The  common  characteristics  of  the  network  of 
Anabaptist  communities  or  congregations,  which 
between  1525  and  1530  spread  themselves  over 
the  Germanic  populations  of  the  Continent, 
from  Bern  in  the  south  to  Amsterdam  in  the 
north,  from  Strasburg  in  the  west  to  Vienna 
in  the  east,  will  be  sufficiently  apparent  to  the 
reader  from  the  foregoing  pages.  It  will  be 
readily  seen  from  them  that  a  centralised  orga- 
nization in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  never 
existed.  At  most  we  find  a  loose  federation 
between  the  communities  of  a  district.  The 
only  real  bond  uniting  these  widely-spread 
fraternities,  with  the  possible  exception  of  their 


DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICE.  65 

characteristic  ceremonies  of  adult  baptism  and 
bread-breaking,  was  rather  a  common  sentiment 
and  intellectual  tendency  than  any  hard-and- 
fast  system  of  dogma  or  ritual.  The  twenty- 
five  propositions,  enumerated  by  Bullinger,  as 
constituting  the  common  basis  of  the  Anabap- 
tist doctrine,  were  doubtless  accepted  by  the 
vast  majority  of  the  religious  communities  of 
the  Anabaptists.  But,  as  Bullinger  himself  shows, 
there  were  not  wanting  individual  leaders  and 
even  entire  communities  of  the  Brethren  who 
dissented  from  many  even  of  the  tenets  that 
were  in  general  regarded  as  fundamental.  In 
fine,  though  the  general  tendencies  of  Anabap- 
tism  were  unmistakable,  the  specific  doctrines 
held  by  its  adherents  presented  many  marked 
variations. 


CHAPTER   III. 

PERSECUTION   OF   THE   ANABAPTISTS   AND   DEATH 
OF   THE   EARLIER    LEADERS. 

AT  first  the  attitude  of  the  authorities  towards 
the  new  sect  was  somewhat  hesitating.  Like 
Zwingli  in  Zurich,  the  spiritual  and  temporal 
powers  of  other  towns  made  some  show  of 
giving  the  Anabaptists  a  fair  hearing,  and 
instituted  public  disputations.  It  was  expected, 
of  course,  that  they  should  accept  the  refutations 
of  the  pastors  and  masters  who  were  appointed 
for  the  purpose  of  refuting  them.  When,  as 
might  have  been  supposed,  the  disputants  having 
failed  to  come  to  an  understanding,  the  Ana- 
baptists would  not  repent  and  acknowledge 
themselves  as  beaten,  resort  had  to  be  taken 
to  other  measures.  St.  Gallen,  Basel  and  Bern, 
besides  Zurich,  tried  the  persuasive  method  of 
disputation  without  any  tangible  results.  The 
inevitable  change  to  persecution  followed. 

The  Governments,  although  agreed  as  to  the 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.      67 

principle  of  non-toleration  of  dissentients  from 
the  established  creed,  whether  Catholic  or  Pro- 
testant, were  by  no  means  all  of  the  same  mind 
as  to  the  severity  of  the  measures  necessary  to 
stamp  out  the  new  doctrine. 

The  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Austria  issued  on 
August  26th,  1527,  an  Imperial  mandate  con- 
demning Anabaptism  and  threatening  the  fol- 
lowers of  such  doctrine  with  the  punishment  of 
death.  On  October  i6th  of  the  same  year,  he 
had  more  than  two  thousand  copies  of  this 
mandate  printed  and  distributed  over  the  dif- 
ferent provinces  of  the  Empire.  The  Catholic 
territories  and  cities  were,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  the  first  to  adopt  extreme  courses. 
They  were  stimulated  by  another  Imperial  man- 
date of  January  4th,  1528,  reminding  them 
that,  according  alike  to  the  Spiritual  and  temporal 
law,  re-baptism  was  punishable  with  death,  and 
exhorting  the  authorities  throughout  the  Empire 
to  proceed  with  rigour  in  accordance  with  the 
legal  provisions  in  the  matter.  For  the  Catholic 
powers  this  was  all  right,  but  it  was  impossible 
for  the  new  Evangelical  (Protestant)  principalities 
and  cities  to  admit  the  validity  of  Imperial  laws 
and  edicts  in  religious  matters ;  since  they  would 


68   RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

have  been  at  once  themselves  confronted  with 
the  Edict  of  Worms  (1520)  and  with  the  opening 
up  of  a  limitless  vista  of  consequences  other- 
wise, which  would  place  them  in  an  impossible 
position.  Not  that  the  heads  of  the*  official 
Reformation  yielded  one  whit  to  the  Catholics 
in  the  ill-will  they  bore  the  new  comers,  but 
the  idea  of  starting  a  persecution  on  their  own 
account  by  virtue  of  their  local  authority  was  as 
yet  not  quite  familiar  to  them.  Hence  a  certain 
hesitancy  and  reluctance  to  leave  the  path  of 
persuasion  and  argument.  Various  lights  of  the 
official  protestantism  were  entrusted  or  entrusted 
themselves  with  the  mission  of  controversially 
destroying  the  leading  positions  of  the  Anabap- 
tists. In  the  discourses  and  literature  that  resulted, 
the  to  us  unimportant  but  at  that  time  essential 
question  of  re-baptism  occupied  the  foremost  place. 
But  with  all  the  disputation,  spoken  and  written  on 
the  subject,  little  impression  was  made.  Martin 
Butzer  of  Strasburg,  clever  theological  logic- 
chopper  as  he  was,  was  forced  to  admit  that, 
during  four  years  almost  exclusively  devoted 
to  this  class  of  activity,  he  could  only  boast  of 
one  convert. 

Elsewhere    there   was   a   disposition   to   treat 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     69 

the  Anabaptists  as  political  criminals.  The  re- 
membrance of  the  Peasants  War  and  the  part 
played  in  it  by  similar  doctrines,  doctrines  now 
embraced,  moreover,  by  the  very  same  classes 
and  in  some  cases  even  the  very  persons  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  great  rebellion,  naturally 
strengthened  this  way  of  looking  at  the  matter. 
In  a  pamphlet  published  at  the  time  bearing 
the  title  :  "  Neue  Zeitung  von  den  Wiedertaufferen 
2ind  ihrer  sect,  neulich  erwachsen  im  Shifte  zu 
Salzburg  und  an  andern  enden"  etc.  (1528),  1  we 
are  told  how  the  new  Sect  was  spreading  in 
Salzburg  as  elsewhere  ;  how  its  votaries  met  and 
held  conventicles  in  out-of-the-way  places;  how 
those  who  were  baptized  made  over  their  pos- 
sessions to  the  Brotherhood;  how  they  refused 
to  go  more  to  the  il stone  temples"  to  hear 
mass,  etc.  A  report  being  spread  that  the 
brethren  proposed  on  Christmas  Eve,  1527,  to 
massacre  all  priests  and  monks,  an  ex-priest, 
who  was  one  of  their  chief  preachers,  and  thirty- 
two  of  his  hearers  were  arrested  not  far  from 
the  town  by  five  men-at-arms.  Of  these  the 

1  ("New  tractate  touching  the  Anabaptists  and  their  sect 
newly  arisen  and  grown  up  in  the  diocese  of  Salzburg  and  in 
other  parts"?) 


yo     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

priest  himself  and  two  others,  who  refused  to 
recant,  were  burned  alive  on  the  Frohnhof  at 
Salzburg.  Five  more,  who  confessed  their  errors, 
were  executed  with  the  sword.  A  woman  and 
ua  beautiful  young  girl"  of  sixteen  would  not 
recant  and  were  drowned  by  the  hangman  in 
the  horsepond,  their  bodies  being  afterwards 
burned.  On  the  Monday  after  All  Saints'  Day 
a  nobleman  and  a  walletmaker,  both  of  Salzburg, 
were  first  beheaded  and  then  burned.  Shortly 
afterwards  a  girtle-maker  and  a  shoe-latchet 
maker,  who  refused  to  recant,  were  burned  in 
the  public  square.  "They  lived  long,"  says  this 
little  chronicle,  "  and  cried  so  unceasingly  to  God 
that  it  was  pitiful  to  hear."  On  the  following 
Monday,  ten  women  and  some  men,  who  had 
recanted,  had  their  lives  spared  on  condition  of 
doing  penance,  but  were  expelled  the  town. 
The  same  week  one  of  the  town-clerks,  an 
ex-priest,  and  three  other  persons,  amongst  them 
another  journeyman  girtle-maker,  who  under 
torture  steadfastly  refused  to  recant,  were  shut 
up  in  a  house  previously  used  for  the  sect's 
meetings,  which  was  then  set  on  fire.  "They 
lived  long,  and  pitifully  shrieked  together,  till  at 
last  they  gave  up  the  ghost."  Two  other  houses 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     71 

used  presumably  for  the  meetings  of  the  sect 
were  also  burned  to  the  ground  as  a  warning. 
The  author  states  there  were  at  the  time  of 
writing  forty-one  persons  imprisoned  in  Salzburg 
of  whom,  he  says,  uno  man  knoweth  what 
shall  be  done  unto  them." 

The  tract  concludes  with  an  enumeration  of 
sundry  tenets  held  by  the  new  sectaries,  which 
had  been  rejected  by  the  assembled  clergy  of 
Augsburg  as  antichristian,  amongst  others,  that 
no  one  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  right  preacher 
who  does  not  travel  from  place  to  place;  that 
Christ  is  only  the  teacher  of  a  Christian  life, 
but  not  the  fulfiller  of  the  law  in  us;  that  the 
only  way  to  the  Father  is  to  do  justly;  that 
adult  baptism  has  been  enjoined  by  a  new 
dispensation  from  God. 

During  the  five  years  from  1525  to  1530,  the 
number  of  Anabaptists  slain  in  the  Tyrol  and 
the  neighbouring  territories  is  estimated  by 
Kirschmeyer  at  a  thousand.  Sebastian  Franck 
reckons  six  hundred  as  having  perished  at  En- 
sisheim,  the  seat  of  the  Austrian  Government 
in  its  south-western  dominions,  though  whether 
he  includes  as  Anabaptists  those  who  suffered 
for  their  part  in  the  Peasant  revolt  is  not  quite 


72     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

clear.  At  Linz  there  were  seventy-six  killed  in 
six  weeks.  Duke  Wilhelm  of  Bavaria  gave  the 
order  that  all  those  who  recanted  should  be 
beheaded,  whilst  those  who  did  not  should  be 
burned.  From  1529  onwards,  the  authorities 
were  in  some  cases  somewhat  more  merciful, 
basing  their  action  on  an  Imperial  mandate  of 
April  23rd  of  that  year,  that  only  the  leaders 
and  preachers  among  the  Baptists  and  those  who 
were  specially  obstinate,  or  who  had  relapsed 
after  having  once  recanted,  should  be  burned, 
but  that  those  who  confessed  their  errors  might 
be  pardoned.  Even  with  this  limitation  enough 
victims  were  delivered  over  to  the  executioner, 
one  would  have  thought,  to  satisfy  the  most 
blood-thirsty  bigot  or  representative  of  domi- 
nant class-interest. 

The  so-called  Evangelical  territories,  Zwinglian 
and  Lutheran,  though  persecution  in  them  was 
not,  as  a  rule,  carried  to  the  same  length  as 
in  the  Catholic  districts,  had  no  lack  of  victims. 
The  hesitancy  and  partial  tolerance  that  marked 
their  attitude  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  move- 
ment soon  gave  way  to  imprisonment  and 
executions.  Instances  of  toleration  were  rare, 
the  chief  one  being  that  of  the  Landgraf  of 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     73 

Hesse,  who,  in  replying  to  a  Lutheran  admonition 
from  Saxony,  urging  suppression  of  the  Anabap- 
tists, declared  that  his  conscience  would  not 
allow  him  to  punish  religious  opinion  with  the 
sword  ;  were  it  not  so,  he  would  have  to  suppress 
Jews  and  Papists  no  less  than  the  Anabaptists. 
In  most  of  the  Protestant  territories,  however, 
the  wave  of  persecution  rapidly  rose  higher  and 
higher.  Felix  Manz  was  judicially  drowned  at 
Zurich  on  January  5th,  1527.  On  May  2ist  of 
the  same  year  Michel  Sattler,  a  well-known  local 
leader  at  Rothenburg  on  the  Neckar,  had  his 
tongue  torn  out,  and  after  being  flayed  with  red 
hot  pincers  was  burned,  his  wife  being  punished 
by  drowning  shortly  after.  In  Augsburg  a  bitter 
persecution  began  in  the  autumn  of  1527.  It 
was  here  that  Hans  Hut,  imprisoned  in  one  of 
the  towers  of  the  town  wall,  was  killed  in  at- 
tempting to  escape.  His  corpse  was  burned  in 
the  public  place  of  execution.  This  happened 
in  December.  Among  the  earlier  Anabaptists 
Hans  Hut  (not  to  be  confounded  with  Jakob 
Huter)  is  such  a  prominent  figure  that  it  is  worth 
while  to  turn  aside  to  consider  his  career, 
characteristic  as  it  in  many  ways  was. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  stated  that  Hut 


74     1VSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

was  a  native  of  Main  in  Franconia.  By  trade 
he  was  a  bookbinder,  who  travelled  much  through 
the  Franconian  cities.  He  alleged,  in  a  state- 
ment made  at  Augsburg  before  his  accusers, 
that  he  had  for  some  time  acted  as  a  kind  of 
agent  for  the  Lutheran  press  at  Wittenberg. 
In  1524,  however,  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Thomas  Miinzer,  whom  he  also  assisted  in 
the  printing  and  circulating  of  his  pamphlets. 
Munzer  soon  won  him  over  to  some  at  least  of 
his  ideas.  During  a  journey  to  Wittenberg,  get- 
ting into  conversation  with  some  Anabaptists, 
he  became  much  struck  with  their  arguments, 
which  he  followed  up  by  a  diligent  study  of  the 
passages  in  the  New  Testament  relating  to 
baptism.  The  result  was  Hut's  complete  con- 
version to  the  new  doctrines.  On  the  outbreak 
of  the  Peasants  War  in  Saxony  he  migrated 
to  Frankenhausen,  with  the  object  of  selling  his 
books  and  pamphlets  to  the  peasants.  He  was, 
however,  arrested  by  the  authorities,  but  was 
released  through  the  agency  of  Munzer,  then 
at  the  height  of  his  power.  After  the  battle  of 
Frankenhausen  he  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
the  pursuers  and  began  his  career  as  an  Ana- 
baptist preacher.  Hans  Hut  declared  that 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     75 

although  valuing  the  teaching  of  Miinzer  and 
revering  his  personality,  he  never  actually  joined 
his  immediate  followers  at  Miilhausen,  who,  as 
a  sect,  kept  themselves  separate  from  the  rising 
Anabaptist  body.  Hut,  however,  does  not  ap- 
pear himself  to  have  been  re-baptized  before 
the  2Oth  of  May,  1526,  when  the  ceremony  was 
performed  by  Johannes  Denck.  Hence,  during 
the  Miinzer  period  he  had  clearly  not  actually 
joined  the  body.  Hut  now  went  about  himself 
baptizing,  his  chief  proselyte  being  Wolfgang 
Vogel,  a  pastor  of  Elterdorf,  who  in  his  turn 
preached  and  baptized  much.  His  assent, 
however,  to  the  non-resistance  doctrines,  at  this 
time  held  by  the  vast  majority  of  the  Anabap- 
tists, seems  to  have  been,  if  recognised  at  all, 
considerably  modified  by  Miinzerite  teaching. 
The  gist  of  his  preaching  was  that  Christ  would 
shortly  come  into  his  earthly  Kingdom,  and 
would  give  the  sword  of  justice  into  the  hands 
of  the  elect,  that  is,  the  re-baptized  ones.  He 
is  also  credited  with  a  free-love  doctrine. 

Arrested  by  order  of  the  City  authorities  of 
Niirnberg,  Hut  was  after  a  short  time  released 
and  expelled  the  city  territory.  The  Rath  of 
Niarnberg  meanwhile  sent  warning  to  Augsburg 


76     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  Regensburg  against  the  dangerous  firebrand. 
The  latter,  however,  continued  to  preach,  pro- 
claiming himself  a  prophet  sent  by  God  to  warn 
the  godless  of  the  approaching  end  of  the  world, 
when  judgment  would  be  held  on  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth  for  the  abuse  of  their  tem- 
poral authority  in  the  persecution  of  the  saints, 
no  less  than  on  priests  and  pastors  for  their 
false  doctrines.  But  the  saints  would  rejoice, 
for  they  should  receive  a  two-edged  sword,  to 
the  end  that  they  might  bind  the  Kings  and 
nobles  with  iron  chains.  The  great  day  would 
be  presaged  by  the  irruption  of  the  Turks  into 
Christendom.  The  advent  of  Christ  was  fixed 
by  Hut  for  Whitsuntide  1528.  On  Hut's  be- 
ginning to  preach  these  doctrines  in  Nikolsburg 
in  Moravia,  where  Hubmeyer  had  fixed  the 
scene  of  his  activity,  the  two  men  naturally  came 
into  collision.  Hubmeyer  was  nothing  if  not  a 
partisan  of  the  moderate  views  of  the  party, 
and  generally  represented  the  most  conservative 
tendencies  in  Anabaptism.  The  usual  disputation 
was  held  between  the  two  preachers  in  a  village 
church  outside  Nikolsburg,  and  a  second  in 
Nikolsburg  itself.  But  the  doctrine  of  non-resist- 

o 

ance  had  two  sides  to  it.    If  it  discountenanced 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     77 

rebellion  against  constituted  authorities,  it  also 
discountenanced  fighting  on  behalf  of  those  autho- 
rities or  indeed  in  any  way  assisting  them  in  their 
acts  of  violence.  Now  Hubmeyer,  with  a  weakness 
that  was  characteristic  of  him,  as  is  indicated  not 
merely  in  his  recantation  at  Zurich,  but  in  his 
whole  career,  was  inclined  to  temporize  in  this 
matter  with  the  laws  of  the  land,  which  obliged 
the  inhabitants  to  pay  a  war-tax  and  provide 
war-material  against  the  Turks.  In  this  way  he  in- 
curred the  displeasure  of  the  more  logically- 
minded  of  the  body,  to  whom  Hans  Hut  rallied. 
It  was  not  long  before  Hut  was  arrested  and 
incarcerated  in  the  castle  of  Nikolsburg.  This 
time,  however,  friendly  aid  was  successful  in 
letting  him  down  through  the  window  by  night 
in  a  net  used  for  entrapping  hares.  These 
discussions  between  Hubmeyer  and  Hut  in 
Moravia  created  a  widespread  sensation. 

In  August,  1527,  Hut  returned  for  the  last 
time  to  Augsburg,  where,  in  the  following  No- 
vember, he  was  arrested,  and  where,  as  we  have 
seen,  his  attempt  to  escape  had  a  fatal  ending. 
His  disciple,  Wolfgang  Vogel,  it  should  be  said, 
had  been  already  beheaded  in  Ntirnberg,  as  a 
ringleader  of  rebels,  on  the  26th  of  March,  1527. 


78    JRISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Hubmeyer  himself  was  arrested  at  the  instance 
of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  at  the  beginning  of 
1528.  He  was,  with  eighteen  other  Anabaptists, 
in  February  1528  brought  to  Passau  and  thence 
to  Vienna  where  he  was  put  to  the  torture. 
This  time,  though  no  promise  of  any  formal 
recantation  could  be  extracted  from  him,  still 
weak,  he  sent  in  a  defence  in  which  he  endea- 
voured to  show  himself  in  as  orthodox  a  light 
as  possible,  and  by  which  he  evidently  hoped 
to  conciliate  the  authorities.  But  it  was  all  of 
no  avail.  He  was  condemned  to  be  burned  at 
the  stake.  Early  in  March  he  was  brought  to 
Vienna,  after  being  confined  for  some  time  in 
a  castle  outside  the  city.  He  was  taken  before 
the  Spiritual  Court,  and  was  subjected  to  the 
torture,  but,  no  further  recantation  being  extorted, 
sentence  was  passed.  On  March  loth,  he  was 
placed  bound  upon  a  cart  and  carried  through 
the  streets  of  Vienna,  being,  as  one  report  states, 
gripped  with  hot  pincers  at  intervals  till  he 
reached  the  place  of  execution. 

What  followed  is  given  in  a  report  of  the 
matter  by  one  Fabri  a  priest,  published  imme- 
diately afterwards.  It  seems  to  have  been  a 
kind  of  official  document.  Hubmeyer,  we  are 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     79 

told,  who  throughout  his  journey  had  been  re- 
peating passages  from  the  Bible,  on  being  bound 
to  the  stake  raised  his  voice  and  cried  in  the 
Swiss  dialect :  u  Oh  merciful  God !  give  me  pa- 
tience in  my  great  agony."  Turning  to  the 
crowd  which  had  followed,  he  spoke :  u  Oh  dear 
brethren,  if  I  have  offended  anyone  in  word  or 
deed,  may  he  forgive  me  for  the  sake  of  my 
most  merciful  God,  as  I  forgive  also  those  who 
have  injured  me."  On  his  clothes  being  taken 
from  him,  he  exclaimed:  UI  willingly  part  with 
my  garments,  O  my  Lord !  Only  preserve  for 
me  my  spirit  and  my  soul  which  I  commend  to 
thee."  After  having  repeated  in  Latin  the  words 
"O  Lord,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit," 
his  hands  and  feet  were  bound  and  he  was  laid 
upon  the  pile.  When  the  executioner  rubbed 
gunpowder  into  his  long  beard,  he  murmured, 
u  O  salt  me  well,  salt  me  well,"  and  then  raising 
his  head,  exclaimed :  "  O  dear  brethren,  pray 
God  to  give  me  patience  in  this  my  suffering." 
As  his  hair  and  beard  burned,  he  cried  out: 
UO  Jesus!  Jesus!"  These  were  his  last  words, 
before,  overpowered  by  the  smoke,  his  head  fell 
upon  his  breast  and  he  died.  It  is  said  that  to 
those  around  it  seemed  as  though  he  experienc- 


8o     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

ed  more  joy  than  pain.  The  weakness  and 
inconstancy  that  during  his  life  had  more  than 
once  led  him,  in  the  presence  of  danger,  to 
recant  or  tone  down  his  opinions,  was  exchanged 
in  his  last  hour  for  the  most  heroic  fortitude. 
His  wife,  it  is  said,  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  of 
Waldshut,  strengthened  him  in  his  convictions  with 
her  encouragement  up  to  the  last.  She  herself  was 
three  days  later  thrown  from  the  Danube  bridge 
with  a  stone  tied  round  her  neck  and  drowned. 
Hubmeyer's  death  created  a  great  impression, 
but  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  was  by  no  means 
disposed  to  stop  at  half  measures,  or  at  the 
mere  extermination  of  the  leaders.  He  imme- 
diately took  steps  of  a  still  more  drastic  nature 
in  that  great  seat  of  Anabaptism,  the  scene  of 
the  activity  of  Hubmeyer,  Moravia.  Shortly 
after  Hubmeyer's  death,  he  got  a  measure  sanction- 
ed by  the  assembled  estates  of  that  territory  for 
the  rooting  out  of  the  Anabaptist  communities 
throughout  all  its  districts.  After  this  they  were 
to  be  treated  as  common  criminals,  to  shelter 
whom  was  in  itself  a  crime.  Large  numbers 
fled  the  country  into  Lower  Austria,  Switzerland, 
Tyrol,  Bavaria  and  Wurtemburg.  But  they  were 
destined  to  find  no  rest  for  the  soles  of  their 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     81 

feet.  Orders  were  sent  to  the  provincial  Governor 
of  Lower  Austria  with  strict  injunctions  to  sup- 
press the  sectaries.  The  following  indications 
as  to  how  they  might  be  known  were  also  for- 
warded:— When  an  Anabaptist  meets  another, 
it  was  said,  he  seizes  his  hat  or  his  beard  and 
exclaims :  "  God  be  with  thee,  brother  in  the 
Lord,"  to  which  is  replied:  "  God  thank  thee 
in  the  Lord;"  they  profess  the  doctrine  that  no 
authority  besides  God  should  be  tolerated,  and 
that  all  goods  should  be  in  common ;  they  declare, 
it  was  also  alleged,  that  if  the  Turks  come  into 
the  land,  they  will  join  them  and  not  help  their 
authorities,  for  that  all  who  were  not  of  their 
faith,  including  the  Emperor,  ought  to  be  killed. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Archduke  and  his 
advisers  in  this  document  only  show  their  com- 
plete ignorance  as  to  the  tenets  and  dispositions 
of  the  great  bulk  of  the  Anabaptists  of  that 
time.  The  Moravian  communities  especially, 
having  come  under  the  influence  of  Hubmeyer, 
belonged  to  the  most  moderate  section  of  the 
body.  Large  numbers  of  men,  women  and 
children,  of  course,  fell  victims.  Speaking  of 
the  orders  of  Ferdinand,  the  u  Geschicktsbucher 
der  Wiedertaiiffer,  "  (C.  58,)  says :  "He,  by  means 

6 


82    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  his  agents,  did  bring  many  into  prison ;  and 
whom  he  found  in  the  streets  or  in  the  fields, 
them  had  he  beheaded,  and  they  who  in  the 
villages  would  not  betray  their  faith  were  hanged 
to  the  gate-posts." 

But  Leonhard  of  Lichtenstein,  the  territorial 
magnate  who  had  yielded  to  pressure  in  the 
surrender  of  Hubmeyer  and  his  associates,  and 
in  the  subsequent  expulsion  of  the  Anabaptists 
generally,  seems  before  long  to  have  repented 
of  his  departure  from  the  policy  of  toleration 
which  had  previously  characterized  him,  and,  in 
conjunction  with  his  brother,  Hans  von  Lichten- 
stein, now  allowed  the  fugitives  to  return.  Many 
of  them  had  hidden  themselves  in  the  neigh- 
bouring forests  and  mountains.  So  the  lords 
of  Nikolsburg,  the  Lichtensteins,  while  threatening 
the  Austrian  Provost  with  armed  resistance, 
should  he  enter  their  territory,  sent  messengers 
to  seek  out  these  wanderers,  and  to  invite  them 
to  come  back  to  their  houses  and  homes  on 
the  assurance  that  nothing  further  should  await 
them.  Other  fugitives  had  sought  refuge  in 
Hungary.  Attracted  by  the  reputation  for  tole- 
ration of  the  house  of  Lichtenstein,  their  Mora- 
vian territories  again  became  a  centre  to  which 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     83 

the  German  Anabaptists  flocked,  notwithstanding 
the  efforts  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  to  keep 
alive  the  persecution  there.  Several  places 
throughout  the  Moravian  Margravate  became 
new  centres  of  the  Baptist  communities.  We  read, 
it  is  true,  of  persecution  in  some  districts,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  succeeded  in  maintain- 
ing themselves  in  Austerlitz,  Anspitz,  Ausspitz 
and  Kronau,  in  addition  to  Nikolsburg. 

Meanwhile  the  attention  of  the  Austrian  autho- 
rities was,  for  the  time  being,  partially  diverted 
from  the  Anabaptist  hunt  by  the  imminence  of 
the  Turkish  invasion.  Others  were  found  to 
take  the  place  of  the  lost  leaders,  Hubmeyer 
and  Hut,  but  no  sooner  were  the  Brethren 
vouchsafed  temporary  respite  from  persecution 
than  the  old  opposition  between  the  two  ten- 
dencies broke  out  afresh.  Should  the  Brethren 
fulfil  their  obligations  as  subjects  in  succouring 
their  lords  and  masters  in  their  resistance  to 
the  Turks,  or  should  they  rigidly  maintain  an 
attitude  of  passive  non-resistance?  Was  it 
lawful  to  pay  taxes?  Was  community  of  goods 
essential  to  Christian  brotherhood?  These  were 
questions  acrimoniously  debated  between  the 
opportunists  and  the  thorough-going  section. 


84   RfSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

At  last  it  became  evident  that  Nikolsburg 
would  not  hold  the  two  sides  any  longer.  The 
dissension  could  only  be  put  an  end  to  by  se- 
paration. Accordingly,  the  u  men  of  the  common 
life"  or  "men  of  the  staff"  ("Stabler"),  so- 
called  because  they  said  that  no  Christian  ought 
to  carry  a  sword  or  any  other  weapon,  decided 
to  shake  the  dust  off  their  feet  and  depart 
from  their  opponents,  the  "men  of  the  sword," 
as  they  termed  them.  The  territorial  lord, 
Leonhard  of  Lichtenstein,  although,  in  his  cha- 
racter of  magnate  and  ruler,  favouring  the  latter, 
as  partizans  of  concessions  to  the  powers  of  this 
world,  nevertheless  seems  to  have  used  his 
utmost  endeavours  to  affect  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween the  two  parties.  On  the  "  men  of  the 
staff"  proving  obdurate,  however,  Leonhard 
issued  an  order  that  left  them  no  alternative 
but  to  quit  his  domains.  No  sooner  had  they 
gone  than  Leonhard  regretted  having  driven 
out  a  number  of  peaceable  and  industrious  sub- 
jects, so  hurriedly  riding  after  them,  accompanied 
by  a  small  party  of  horsemen,  he  came  up  with 
them  at  a  place  called  Bogenitz.  He  asked  them 
why  they  were  leaving  Nikolsburg.  Their  con- 
science and  heart,  they  said,  witnessed  against 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     85 

his  preachers;  they  even  disapproved  of  his 
having  resisted  the  Austrian  Provost  on  their  be- 
half, for,  said  they,  the  latter  had  been  sent  against 
them  by  those  having  authority,  and  to  resist 
the  powers  that  be  was  to  resist  the  ordinance 
of  God.  Leonhard  seems  to  have  been  struck 
with  admiration  at  their  unshakeable  constancy, 
for  finding  that  he  could  not  persuade  them,  he 
accompanied  them  a  stage  further  on  their  way, 
and  having  treated  them  to  meat  and  drink, 
took  his  leave. 

Their  ultimate  goal  was  Austerlitz,  where  the 
territorial  lords,  the  brothers  Von  Kaunitz,  were 
known  to  be  friendly  to  the  new  doctrines.  The 
messengers  they  sent  in  advance  to  beg  for  an 
asylum  were  warmly  received,  the  brothers  Von 
Kaunitz  sending  three  large  waggons  to  facili- 
tate the  advance  of  their  main  body,  at  the 
same  time  assigning  to  them  a  temporary 
resting-place,  pending  the  erection  of  their 
houses  on  the  Oats-market  (Hafenmarkt],  for 
which  houses  they  were  presented  with  the 
necessary  land  and  timber.  But  here  new  dis- 
putes arose.  Sebastian  Franck  relates  that  they 
had  in  Austerlitz  overseers  for  the  whole  com- 
munity and  one  common  dish  from  which  each 


86    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

took  what  he  had  need  of;  but  he  goes  on  to 
state  that  the  strictest  discipline  in  matters  of 
faith  was  enforced,  and  excommunication  was 
frequent.  "There  was  as  much  liberty  of  con- 
science among  them,"  he  says,  "  as  among  the 
Papists.  He  who  will  not  say  them  yea  in  all 
things,  for  him  hath  God  stopped  the  ears,  and 
be  he  not  willing  to  turn  back  they  cast  him 
out."  Similar  dissensions,  various  in  kind,  oc- 
curred in  the  other  Moravian  centres.  One 
tendency  would  succeed  in  making  itself  para- 
mount in  Ausspitz,  for  example,  and  another  in 
Rossitz. 

Altogether  the  Anabaptist  communities  seem 
to  have  been  approaching  a  condition  of  internal 
disintegration,  when  a  leader  appeared,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  restoring  something  like  order.  The 
leader  was  Jakob  Huter,  a  preacher  hailing  from 
the  Tyrol,  who  was  sent  to  Austerlitz  with  a 
colleague  in  the  autumn  of  1529  to  report  on  the 
situation.  Huter,  on  returning  to  the  Tyrol, 
organised  a  series  of  missionary  companies  whom 
he  sent  out  into  Moravia.  They  found  every- 
where disputes  and  jealousy  rife.  It  was  alleged 
that  the  elders  took  more  than  their  share  in 
the  good  things  of  the  community.  Reublin,  the 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     87 

spokesman  of  the  malcontents,  (quoted  in  Cor- 
neliiis  Vol.  77,  //.  252 — <?59,  note,  letter  to  Pil- 
gram  Maarbeck)  alleges  various  grievances  of 
administration  as  well  as  of  doctrine.  In  the 
catalogue  that  he  sets  forth  we  find,  for  example, 
"maids  are  compelled  to  enter  into  wedlock  with 
young  men  without  their  knowledge  or  consent, 
and  are  sought  to  be  held  thereto.  Moreover, 
young  children  are  injured  by  being  given  hard 
food,  without  milk,  the  issue  of  this  treatment 
being  such  that  more  than  twenty  have  perished." 
The  writer  adds :  u  it  were  enough  to  make  a 
stone  pity  them."  Some  who  had  paid  fifty 
gulden  into  the  common  fund  had  to  see  their 
own  children  suffering  hunger.  As  a  result, 
Reublin  and  his  followers  migrated  from  Au- 
sterlitz  to  Ausspitz,  where  the  Abbess  of  the 
Convent  in  whose  territory  the  town  lay  offered 
them  asylum.  Reublin  himself,  however,  seems 
to  have  fallen  under  suspicion  of  similar  prac- 
tices to  those  with  which  he  charged  the 
Austerlitzers. 

At  this  juncture  Huter  was  definitely  called 
in  as  arbitrator,  and  was  finally  driven  from 
Tyrol  by  the  persecution  which  was  there  started. 
This  was  in  the  late  summer  of  1533,  more  than 


88     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

two  years  and  a  half  after  the  split  in  Austerlitz. 
He  was  received  in  Ausspitz  in  a  friendly 
manner.  Financially,  the  community  seems  to 
have  been  in  a  bad  way ;  so  much  so,  indeed, 
that  they  required  the  material  assistance  of 
Huter  and  his  Tyrollers  to  enable  them  to  pay 
their  rent-dues  to  the  Convent  on  whose  lands 
they  dwelt.  Reproaches,  with  unpleasant  refer- 
ences to  Ananias,  were  bandied  about  amongst 
the  Brethren.  The  situation,  however,  in  Tyrol 
had  the  effect  of  steadily  augmenting  the  number 
of  immigrants  into  Moravia.  But  the  Austrian 
authorities  began  to  take  steps  for  cutting  off 
this  last  retreat  of  the  Brethren. 

The  new  persecution  was  occasioned  by  the 
events  occurring  at  this  time  in  Westphalia. 
In  vain  the  Moravian  Anabaptists  with  perfect 
truth  disclaimed  all  connection  with  the  Miinster 
movement.  Anabaptism,  let  it  take  never  so 
passive  or  non-resistant  a  form,  became  now 
suspect  to  the  governing  classes  everywhere. 
The  assembly  of  the  Moravian  estates,  in  a  sitting 
held  on  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent,  1534,  decreed 
that  u  the  Anabaptists  shall  henceforth  no  longer 
be  borne  within  the  land,  but  shall  be  driven 
out."  The  shortest  possible  respite  was  given 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     89 

them.  They  were  to  leave  the  land  by  St. 
George's  Day,  and  find  their  bread  elsewhere. 
Accordingly,  large  numbers,  in  spite  of  prohibi- 
tions, went  back  to  the  territories  whence  they 
came.  Jakob  Hute.r  himself,  with  many  of  his 
countrymen,  returned  into  Tyrol.  But  his  work 
in  Ausspitz  had  not  been  in  vain,  notwithstanding 
the  confusion  and  discord  that  reigned  there. 
He  had  succeeded  in  gaining  over  a  large 
number  of  the  Brethren  to  submit  to  the  regime 
which  he  established,  and  which  was  termed  the 
"Hurtercher  Ordnung"  or  regime  of  Huter. 
By  this  time,  in  fact,  he  had  become  recognised 
as  the  head  of  the  movement  in  both  Moravia 
and  Tyrol.  But  shortly  after  his  return  he  was 
arrested  in  accordance  with  the  Imperial  man- 
date. His  trial  and  execution  followed.  But 
we  are  anticipating. 

The  movement  in  Tyrol  began  early  in  the 
history  of  Anabaptism,  and  was  recruited  by 
more  than  one  strong  wave  of  immigration  from 
the  other  Austrian  territories,  where  the  Imperial 
edicts  were  more  rigorously  carried  into  effect. 
This  was  the  case  in  the  autumn  of  1527,  when 
many  arrived  from  Lower  Austria,  also  in  the 
early  spring  of  1528,  when  they  came  from  the 


go    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

domains  of  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  because 
of  the  persecution,  already  referred  to,  in  that 
district.  In  consequence,  orders  were  sent  to 
all  the  principal  places  throughout  Tyrolese 
territory,  to  all  the  local  magistrates,  enjoining 
them  not  to  tolerate  the  pernicious  error,  while, 
in  order  that  no  one  might  excuse  himself  by 
pleading  ignorance  of  the  mandates,  it  was 
ordered  that  they  should  be  read  in  churches 
on  every  third  Sunday.  Still  the  sect  continued 
to  exist,  holding  meetings  at  night  in  secret 
places. 

The  persecution  at  this  time  (1528 — 1529) 
raged  well-nigh  everywhere  throughout  southern 
Germany  and  Austria,  The  Swabian  League 
instituted  flying  columns  for  the  purpose  of 
hunting  down  Anabaptists,  with  instructions  to 
shoot  them  on  the  spot  as  outlaws.  Blaurock, 
the  protagonist  of  re-baptism,  was  burned  at 
Klausen  in  the  Tyrol  in  1529. 

Up  to  the  autumn  of  1527,  besides  Nikolsburg, 
Augsburg  had  gradually  become,  owing  to  its 
political  security  for  the  time  being,  one  of  the 
chief  seats  of  the  movement.  Among  the  Brethren 
at  Augsburg  were  many  well-to-do  citizens.  These 
naturally  belonged  to  what  may  be  termed  the 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     91 

"moderate  party"— that  is  the  party  whose 
tendencies,  whilst  they  adhered  to  the  purely 
theological  side  of  the  movement,  were  to 
follow  their  personal  and  class  interests  in  the 
material  affairs  of  life.  Hence  they  looked  with 
little  favour  on  the  communism  of  the  Zurich 
Brethren,  and  still  less  on  the  new  and  politi- 
cally subversive  tendencies  that  had  been  sought 
to  be  introduced  into  the  Anabaptist  commu- 
nities by  certain  of  the  ex-followers  of  Miinzer,  no- 
tably by  Hans  Hut.  The  two  first  synods  of 
the  Anabaptists  were  held  at  Augsburg;  one 
in  the  spring  of  1526,  and  the  other  in  August 
of  the  following  year,  just  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  persecution.  The  latter  synod  was  at- 
tended by  more  than  sixty  delegates  from  all 
the  German-speaking  countries.  Considerable 
divergencies  of  opinion  in  the  communities, 
divergencies  fallincr  under  the  heads  of  moderate 

o  o 

or  extreme  respectively,  were  there  represented. 
Amongst  the  leaders  of  the  party  in  Augsburg, 
where  he  successfully  agitated  for  a  time,  was 
Hans  Denck.  It  was  he,  in  fact,  who,  by  his 
eloquence  and  the  influence  of  his  personality, 
raised  the  Augsburg  community  to  the  important 
place  it  attained  in  the  movement.  Denck  was 


92    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

a  learned  theologian,  whose  salient  doctrine  was 
that  of  the  inner  light  and  inner  word  rendering 
sacraments  and  scriptures  superfluous  to  the  true 
believer.  His  sympathy  with  the  economical 
and  political  side  of  the  movement  was  not 
great,  and  he  had  broken  many  a  lance  with 
Hans  Hut  on  these  points.  Denck  subsequently 
went  to  Basel,  where  he  modified  his  views,  appa- 
rently under  the  influence  of  Oecolampadius,  and 
where  late  in  the  year  1527  he  died  of  the  plague. 
But  neither  persecution  nor  the  loss  of  leaders 
seriously  affected  the  progress  of  the  movement. 
It  continued  to  grow  even  where  to  all  outward 
appearance  it  had  been  stamped  out.  Up  to 
this  time,  that  is,  from  its  origin  to  about  1530, 
Anabaptism  had  been  predominantly  theological, 
or  at  least  non-political.  The  doctrine  of  passive 
non-resistance  was  itself  purely  a  deduction 
from  a  theological  position.  It  was  professedly 
accepted  by  almost  all  the  Anabaptist  communi- 
ties, at  any  rate  so  far  as  the  discountenancing 
of  rebellion  against  the  temporal  authority  was 
concerned.  The  thoroughgoing  spirits  insisted 
on  its  logical  carrying-out  in  the  refusal  to 
assist,  even  by  the  payment  of  taxes,  the  powers 
that  were,  in  any  coercive  or  warlike  enterprise. 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS.     93 

The  community  of  goods,  based  on  similar 
theological  grounds,  was  indeed  a  sacred  prin- 
ciple with  many  congregations  of  the  Brethren, 
although  not  with  all ;  but  in  no  case,  in  the 
bodies  founded  during  the  earlier  years  of  the 
movement,  do  we  find  evidences  of  any  general 
sympathy  with  the  Miinzerite  political  idea  of 
the  sword  of  sharpness  being  wielded  by  the 
elect  against  the  unbelieving  world.  Hans  Hut's 
success  at  Nikolsburg,  and  probably  at  Augsburg 
also,  was  due  to  his  championing  the  cause  of 
the  logical  non-resistants  against  the  more 
moderate  temporisers.  Yet,  in  spite  of  his 
fervent  enunciation  of  them,  it  would  not  seem 
that  he  succeeded  in  acquiring  any  following 
worth  mentioning  for  his  political-revolutionary 
theories. 

Sufficient  has  been  said  to  show  the  general 
character  of  the  movement,  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical, and  its  fortunes  during  these  years.  To 
weary  the  reader  by  multiplying  the  names 
of  obscure  leaders  or  the  details  of  the  persecu- 
tions endured  would  be  purposeless.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  the  non-political  tendencies  present 
in  these  earlier  communities  continued  to 
maintain  themselves  in  many  cases,  as,  for  in 


94    KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

stance,  in  Moravia,  after  a  new  and  more 
aggressive  spirit  had  seized  what  may  henceforward 
be  described  as  the  main  movement,  a  movement 
that,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  decade  of 
the  century,  constituted  itself  along  the  valley 
of  the  Rhine  and  its  adjacent  districts.  The  rise, 
progress,  and  culmination  of  this  movement  we 
shall  now  have  to  consider. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

MELCHIOR    HOFFMANN    AND    THE    REVOLUTIONARY 
MOVEMENT. 

WE  have  seen  that  in  central  and  south- 
eastern Germany  Anabaptists  continued  to  main- 
tain, barring  isolated  individuals  here  and  there, 
the  attitude  of  non-resistance  and  the  voluntari- 
ness  of  association  that  characterized  it  from 
the  first.  The  fearful  waves  of  persecution  which 
successively  swept  over  it  succeeded  at  length 
in  partially  checking  its  progress.  The  only 
sections  of  this  part  of  the  Empire  in  which  it 
succeeded  in  retaining  any  sort  of  effective  orga- 
nization was  in  the  Moravian  territories,  where 
the  reforms  and  discipline  originated  by  Jacob 
Huter,  were  continued  and  developed  by  his 
successors.  Here  the  Anabaptist  doctrines  in 
their  earlier  form  continued  to  flourish  in  spite 
of  attempts  to  stamp  them  out  by  persecution. 
The  Moravian  communities,  owing  to  their  com- 
parative immunity  from  persecution,  and  still 


96     RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

more  to  their  better  internal  organization,  con- 
tinued to  send  out  apostles  to  other  parts  of 
Germany.  On  the  other  hand,  their  existence 
had  more  effect  in  destroying  the  power  of 
Anabaptism  in  other  parts  of  the  Empire  than 
their  missionary  zeal  had  in  extending  its  sphere 
of  influence.  There  was  a  continuous  drain  of 
stalwarts  in  the  faith  from  other  parts  of  Germany 
to  Moravia.  These  came  singly  and  in  companies 
from  all  the  districts  of  central,  southern,  and 
eastern  Germany.  The  organization  became 
more  closely  knit  together,  whilst  the  concen- 
tration of  industrious  peasants  and  handicraftsmen 
in  the  communities  settled  in  these  regions  had 
the  inevitable  result  of  raising  them  to  a  condi- 
tion of  material  prosperity  that  made  them  the 
envy  of  their  neighbours.  Of  this,  however,  we 
shall  speak  more  at  length  in  a  later  chapter. 
Meanwhile  a  movement  had  sprung  up  in 
western  and  northern  Germany,  following  the 
course  of  the  Rhine  Valley,  that  effectually  threw 
the  older  movement  of  southern  and  eastern 
Germany  into  the  background.  These  earlier 
movements  remained  essentially  religious  and 
theological,  owing,  as  Cornelius  points  out  (Vol. 
II.  p.  74),  to  the  fact  that  they  came  immedi- 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  97 

ately  after  the  overthrow  of  the  great  political 
movement  of  1525.  But  although  the  older 
Anabaptism  did  not  itself  take  political  shape,  it 
succeeded  in  keeping  alive  the  tendencies  and 
the  enthusiasm  out  of  which,  under  favourable 
circumstances,  a  political  movement  inevitably 
grows.  The  result  was,  as  Cornelius  further 
observes,  an  agitation  of  such  a  sweeping  char- 
acter that  the  fourth  decade  of  the  sixteenth 
century  seemed  destined  to  realise  the  ideals 
which  the  third  decade  had  striven  for  in  vain. 
The  new  direction  in  Anabaptism  began  in 
the  rich  and  powerful  Imperial  city  of  Strasburg, 
where  peculiar  circumstances  afforded  the  Brethren 
a  considerable  measure  of  toleration.  Strasburg 
stood,  ecclesiastically,  at  the  head  of  the  Zwinglian 
party  in  the  Empire.  In  this  way  Strasburg  had 
special  connections  with  most  other  parts  of 
Germany.  At  the  head  of  the  Strasburg  theo- 
logians stood  Martin  Butzer  and  Wolfgang 
Kapitan,  Kaspar  Hedian  and  Matthias  Sell. 
Although  closely  united  with  the  Churches  of 
northern  Switzerland,  Strasburg  differed  from 
other  towns  that  had  also  adopted  reformed  doc- 
trines, in  that  it  had  no  all-powerful  personality 
within  its  walls  ready  to  give  the  signal  for 

7 


98  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  official  reformation  to  close  its  ranks  defini- 
tively against  those  holding  extreme  doctrines. 
There  were  not  wanting  preachers  who  urged 
such  a  course,  but  the  City  Council  maintained 
an  independent  attitude  and  declined  to  give 
them  ear  when  they  suggested  that  the  secular 
arm  should  step  in  and  punish  opinion.  The 
ecclesiastical  leaders  themselves,  moreover,  al- 
though generally  adopting  the  Zwinglian  position, 
maintained  a  certain  independence  of  attitude, 
and  were,  as  a  rule,  averse  to  theological  wrangl- 
ing when  this  took  the  form  of  irreconcilable 
polemic. 

It  was  in  the  year  1526  that  the  Anabaptist 
preachers  first  appeared  in  Strasburg.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  same  year  Denck  and  Hatzer 
arrived  and  energetically  carried  on  the  new 
propaganda.  The  usual  disputations  followed, 
and,  although  no  severe  measures  were  taken, 
there  were  not  wanting  some  fines  and  expul- 
sions, but  so  mild  was  the  regime  of  the  autho- 
rities that  many  even  of  those  expelled  returned 
unmolested  in  a  few  weeks.  Only  once,  during 
the  sitting  of  the  Reichstag  of  Speyer  in  1529, 
did  the  Rath  allow  itself  to  be  drawn  into  a 
harsher  view  of  the  case,  some  of  the  sectaries 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  99 

being  imprisoned  and  a  few  even  put  to  the 
torture.  Among  these  was  Reublin,  who  on  his 
release  from  prison  was  expelled  the  town  and 
threatened  with  drowning  should  he  come  back. 
But  the  Rath  before  long  returned  to  its  old 
course  of  impartial  toleration.  After  Reublin's 
expulsion  Pilgram  Maarbeck  became  the  leader 
of  the  movement. 

The  semi-official  heads  of  the  Strasburg  refor- 
mation were  by  no  means  at  one  among  them- 
selves as  to  doctrine,  some  of  them  even 
approaching  Hans  Denck's  views  on  theological 
questions,  notably  on  those  of  infant  baptism, 
ot  the  near  approach  of  the  millennium,  or  the 
end  of  the  world,  although  it  is  true  they  at 
the  same  time  repudiated  re-baptism,  voluntary 
communism,  and  other  tenets  of  the  sect.  Kapi- 
tan  especially  went  great  lengths  in  this  direction. 
The  want  of  a  strong  personality,  the  want  of 
unity  of  purpose  in  such  leaders  as  these,  gave 
the  official  reformation  in  Strasburg  a  permanent 
stamp  of  weakness.  Under  these  circumstances 
Anabaptism  naturally  grew  to  a  point  at  which 
it  rivalled  the  former  in  influence.  But  up  to 
this  time  the  movement  had  nevertheless  been 
conducted  on  the  old  theological  lines. 


ioo  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The   man  who  gave  the  impulse  in  the  new 
direction    was    Melchior    Hoffmann,  by  trade  a 
skinner,    from   the  Imperial  city  of  Schwabisch- 
Hall.     Carried  away,  first  by  the  general  Refor- 
mation   ferment,    and   afterwards   by   the    Ana- 
baptist agitation,  early  devoting  himself  to  preach- 
ing,  he  consistently  refused  all  material  recom- 
pense  for  his   labours,   basing   his   practice    on 
that  of  the  Apostles.  The  speciality  of  Hoffmann's 
preaching   would   seem    to  have  been  from  the 
first   the   strong   emphasis  with  which  he  dwelt 
on   the   signs   of  the    approaching   end    of  the 
world.     A  man  of  little  education,  but  of  strong 
imagination,   his   reading   of  the  Bible  afforded 
him  material  for  the  construction  of  original  and 
glowing   pictures   of  the  ulast  things"  and  the 
reign    of  the    saints.     In    these   he    seemed   to 
voice  the  half-conscious  thoughts  and  imaginings 
of  countless   numbers   among  the  humbler  folk 
in  that  age  of  newly-awakened  Bible-reading,  and 
of  social  change  that  presented  itself  to  the  mind 
in     the     theological    garb    then    forming    part 
of   the   average   man's   intellectual   constitution. 
Hoffmann  had   travelled   much,    especially  in 
northern  Germany,  and  had  even  visited  Sweden, 
having  been  for  a  time  preacher  to  the  German 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  101 

colony  in  Stockholm.  He  had  been  at  an  earlier 
period  of  his  career  a  companion  of  Karlstadt. 
Returning  from  northern  Germany,  he  arrived 
in  Strasburg  probably  in  the  early  summer  of 
1529.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  joined  the 
Anabaptist  body  long  before  this,  if  at  all.  A 
year  previously  we  find  him  still  standing  in 
relation  with  Luther,  who  writes  concerning  him 
that  "  he  means  well,  but  is  rash  and  allows 
himself  to  be  carried  away."  On  the  other  hand, 
Hatzer,  soon  after  his  arrival  in  Strasburg,  writes 
to  Zwingli  praising  him  as  an  able  combatant 
for  the  Zwinglian  doctrine  in  Zeeland,  Sweden, 
Denmark  and  Holstein.  Before  long,  however, 
Hoffmann  came  out  in  his  Anabaptist  colours. 
It  was  most  probably  in  Strasburg  that  he  was 
re-baptized  and  formally  joined  the  sect.  Hence- 
forward he  regarded  himself  and  was  regarded 
by  his  followers  as  a  specially  ordained  prophet 
to  console  the  elect  and  call  the  unregenerate 
world  to  repentance.  Yet,  notwithstanding  Mel- 
chior's  ecstatic  visions  and  theories  respecting 
the  millennium  and  the  last  judgment,  he  did 
not  at  first  actively  oppose  himself  to  the  non- 
resistance  doctrine  till  then  general  among  the 
Brethren. 


102  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 

An  interesting  question  arises  as  to  the  iden- 
tity of  Melchior  Hoffmann  with  Melchior  Rink, 
alluded  to  in  a  previous  chapter.  For  the  identity, 
may  be  urged  the  fact  that  both  Melchiors  are 
described  as  skinners,  both  are  said  to  have 
been  natives  of  Schwabisch-Hall,  while  Johann 
van  Leyden  in  his  statement  before  his  judges 
alleges  that  Hoffmann  had  also  gone  under  the 
name  of  Rink.  Moreover,  we  repeatedly  find 
the  two  names  mentioned  as  working  at  the 
same  time  and  place.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
latter  circumstance  does  not  always  tally,  as 
Rink  is  spoken  of  as  at  Marburg  in  August  1529, 
at  the  time  that  Hoffmann  was  supposed  to  be 
in  Kiel.  This  circumstance  has  induced  Dr.  Ludwig 
Keller  ^Geschichte  der  Wiedertauffer"  p.  128)  to 
conclude  that  Rink  was  a  separate  person. 
"There  remains  at  present  nothing  for  it,"  he 
says,  "but  to  assume  that  Rink  and  Hoffmann 
were  two  persons,  who  in  the  year  15  30  laboured 
in  common  for  the  cause  of  Anabaptism."  The 
close  resemblance  of  the  view  as  well  as  of  the 
movements  of  the  two  men  (if  such  we  may 
suppose  them  to  have  been)  is  in  any  case 
curious.  Rink,  like  Hoffmann,  was  a  great  partisan 
of  the  theory  of  inward  illumination  and  pro- 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  103 

phecies.  They  are  both  reported  to  have  taught 
that  Christ  "was  not  born  of  the  flesh  of  the 
Virgin  Mary."  The  mildness  and  magnanimity 
of  Rink's  character  is  admitted  even  by  hostile 
witnesses.  Hoffmann  does  not  seem  to  have 
remained  long  in  Strasburg  after  his  re-baptism, 
but  to  have  gone  north  again.  He  is  reported 
as  working  in  company  with  Rink  in  the  late 
autumn  of  1529  at  Emden  in  Friesland,  but  the 
success  of  the  cause  in  that  place  appears  to 
have  been  more  attributed  to  Rink  than  to  Hoff- 
mann,— at  least,  the  name  of  Rink  is  the  more 
prominent.  Among  the  converts  here  made  was 
one  Johann  Volkert,  who  shortly  after  went  to 
Amsterdam,  where  he  founded  a  community  that 
became  the  centre  of  an  Anabaptist  movement 
throughout  the  Netherlands.  This  part  of  the 
history  of  Anabaptism,  owing  to  the  secrecy 
with  which  the  propaganda  and  organization 
was  surrounded,  remains  obscure ;  what  is  known 
on  the  subject  being  almost  entirely  taken  from 
the  confessions  of  Brethren  when  on  their  trial 
and  under  torture.  From  these  we  learn  of 
congregations  founded  at  Liege,  Maestricht  and 
Aachen.  These  had  their  own  judges  to  decide 
disputes  among  members  of  the  body,  and 


io4  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

contemptuously  refused  to  recognise  the  authority 
of  "  the  godless "  as  they  termed  the  temporal 
powers.  In  spite  of  persecutions  here  as  else- 
where, the  sect  spread  rapidly  after  the  year 
1530  in  Friesland,  Holland,  the  Austrian  Nether- 
lands, and  generally  along  the  valley  of  the  Rhine. 
We  find  Hoffmann  in  the  year  1531  ministering 
to  the  brethren  at  Amsterdam.  It  is  conjectured 
that  he  shortly  afterwards  visited  Miinster.  In 
any  case  the  new  movement  in  the  north  made 
rapid  strides.  There  is  little  doubt  that  at  this 
time,  if  not  from  the  beginning,  it  had  come 
entirely  under  the  influence  of  Hoffmann. 

Some  time  after  his  reception  into  the  Ana- 
baptist body  at  Strasburg,  Hoffmann,  while  in 
most  other  points  accepting  the  prevalent  doc- 
trines of  the  Brethren,  broke  entirely  loose  from 
the  doctrine  of  non-resistance,  maintaining,  in 
theory  at  least,  the  right  of  the  elect  to  employ 
the  sword  against  the  worldly  authorities,  u  the 
godless,"  the  "  enemies  of  the  saints."  It  was 
predicted,  he  maintained,  that  a  two-edged  sword 
should  be  given  into  the  hands  of  the  saints  to 
destroy  the  mystery  of  iniquity,  the  existing 
principalities  and  powers,  and  the  time  was  now 
at  hand  when  this  prophecy  should  be  fulfilled. 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  105 

The  new  movement  in  the  north-west,  in  the 
lower  Rhenish  districts,  and  -the  adjacent  West- 
phalia, sprang  up  and  extended  itself,  therefore, 
under  the  domination  of  this  idea  of  the  reign 
of  the  saints  in  the  approaching  millennium  and 
of  the  notion  that  passive  non-resistance,  whilst 
for  the  time  being  a  duty,  only  remained  so 
until  the  coming  of  the  Lord  should  give  the 
signal  for  the  saints  to  rise  and  join  in  the 
destruction  of  the  Kingdoms  of  this  world  and 
the  inauguration  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth. 

Hoffmann's  whole  learning  seems  to  have 
been  limited  to  the  Bible,  but  this  he  knew  from 
cover  to  cover.  It  is  difficult  at  this  time  to 
conceive  the  enthusiasm  with  which  all,  but  es- 
pecially the  poorer  classes,  provided  they  could 
read  at  all,  threw  themselves  into  Bible-reading. 
The  appearance  of  the  Lutheran  translation 
produced  a  revolution.  The  handicraftsman  on 
his  bench  and  the  peasant  in  his  field  would 
have  their  Bibles,  over  which  they  pored.  Whole 
books  would  be  learned  by  heart.  For  the 
common  man  there  was  no  other  reading  save 
the  Bible  and  popular  theological  tracts  or  pam- 
phlets commenting  thereon  or  treating  current 


io6  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

social  questions  in  the  light  of  Biblical  story 
and  teaching.  The  followers  of  the  new  move- 
ment in  question  acquired  the  name  of  Melchio- 
rites.  Hoffmann  now  published  a  book  explan- 
atory of  his  ideas,  called  "  The  Ordinance  of 
God^  which  had  an  enormous  popularity.  It 
was  followed  up  by  other  writings  amplifying 
and  defending  the  main  thesis  it  contained. 

The  Melchiorite  communities  of  the  north-west, 
for  the  rest,  were  similar  in  character  to  the 
Anabaptist  communities  of  southern  and  south- 
eastern Germany.  Whoever  joined  the  Brother- 
hood vowed  to  live  conformedly  to  the  will  of 
Christ,  to  abjure  the  world  and  its  ways,  and 
to  regard  his  fellow-believers  as  brothers  and 
sisters.  He  promised  to  deem  his  worldly  goods 
as  a  trust  held  for  the  Brethren,  to  give  all  his 
superfluity  to  the  poor,  and  to  adopt  a  modest 
and  simple  costume.  The  Bible  was  read  and 
commented  on,  and  the  ceremony  of  bread- 
breaking  assiduously  observed.  Outwardly  these 
communities  seemed  to  have  the  same  peaceable 
character  as  those  of  south  Germany  and  Moravia, 
and  in  fact  the  notion  of  vengeance  ultimately  to 
to  be  effected  by  the  sword  appears  at  first  to  have 
been  left  very  much  in  abeyance.  The  carrying 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  107 

of  weapons  was  discouraged,  and  the  returning 
of  good  for  evil  was  inculcated.  It  was  ominous, 
however,  that  Melchior  Hoffmann  was  acclaimed 
as  the  prophet  Elijah  returned  according  to 
promise. 

Up  to  1533,  Strasburg  continued  to  be  regard- 
ed as  the  chief  seat  of  Anabaptism,  so  far  at 
least  as  the  movement  along  the  Rhine  and  the 
adjacent  countries  was  concerned.  The  new 
doctrines  continued  to  be  energetically  and 
openly  preached  and  their  following  numerous. 
Melchior  himself  regarded  Strasburg  as  the  new 
Jerusalem  from  which  the  saints  should  march 
out  to  proclaim  the  new  Kingdom.  After  his 
propagandist  journey  in  the  north  he  accordingly 
returned  to  Strasburg,  where  his  passionate 
oratory  stirred  the  handicraftsmen  and  town- 
proletariat  to  its  depths.  He  proclaimed  the 
end  of  the  year  1533  as  the  date  that  would 
see  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  reign  of  the  saints.  The  excitement 
among  the  poorer  sections  of  the  town  popula- 
tion consequent  on  Hoffmann's  preaching  grew 
so  intense  that  a  popular  rising  was  feared. 
The  prophet  himself  was  in  consequence  arrest- 
ed and  imprisoned  in  one  of  the  towers  on  the 


108  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

city  wall.  Crowds,  however,  assembled  on  the 
other  side  of  the  moat,  so  that  they  might 
perchance  catch  a  glimpse  of  their  leader,  when 
lo !  he  appeared  at  the  grated  window  and  from 
thence  succeeded  in  throwing  his  voice  across 
the  moat  to  repeat  his  warnings  and  prophecies. 
All  the  Apocalyptic  plagues,  said  he,  had  been 
fulfilled,  save  the  vengeance  of  the  Seventh 
Angel,  Babylon  was  falling  and  they  were  on 
the  threshold  of  the  new  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace. 

When  Hoffmann  returned  from  the  north- 
west to  Strasburg  a  large  number  of  his  disciples 
followed  him  in  the  belief  that  Strasburg  was 
to  be  the  home  of  the  saints,  the  New  Jerusalem, 
whence  they  were  to  go  forth,  conquering  and 
to  conquer,  and  in  truth  at  this  time  the  great 
Imperial  city  swarmed  with  the  Anabaptist 
faithful.  But  Hoffmann's  confidence  in  a  speedy 
release  from  his  confinement  was  not  realised. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Melchiorite 
party  embraced  the  whole  of  the  Anabaptist 
body  in  Strasburg,  as  it  may  be  said  to  have 
done  in  the  lower  Rhenish  districts.  There  was 
a  considerable  opposition  party  among  the 
Strasburg  Brethren.  In  the  end,  however,  Hoff- 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  109 

mann's  party  triumphed,  as  much  from  the  effect 
of  his  startling  successes  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  the  north-west  generally,  as  from  the  argu- 
ments of  his  supporters,  or  the  force  of  his 
own  eloquence. 

Towards  the  close  of  1533,  in  spite  of  the 
Melchiorite  agitation  and  of  the  visions  and 
prophecies  of  the  Melchiorite  prophets  and 
prophetesses,  so  zealously  interpreted  by  the 
new  Elias,  the  Anabaptists,  numerous  as  they 
were,  shewed  no  signs  of  acquiring  the  mastery 
of  the  city  either  by  the  force  of  persuasion  or 
of  overt  insurrection,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  town  authorities  began  to  give  unmistakable 
indications  of  using  stronger  measures  than 
heretofore.  It  began  to  be  whispered  abroad 
among  the  Brethren  that  Strasburg  was  after 
all  not  destined  to  be  the  New  Jerusalem,  but 
that  the  Lord  had  rejected  it  because  of  its 
unbelief,  whilst  all  eyes  were  turned  to  the 
astounding  successes  of  the  party  in  the  north- 
west, and  especially  to  the  great  Episcopal 
City  of  Miinster  in  Westphalia,  where  events  were 
developing  with  astounding  rapidity,  and  the 
conviction  gained  ground  every  day  on  all  hands 
that  not  Strasburg,  but  Miinster  was  ordained 


no  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  be  the  seat  of  the  future  Kingdom  of  God. 
Hoffmann  had  prophesied  on  his  return  to  Stras- 
burg  early  in  the  year — and  of  the  sincerity  of 
his  belief  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt — that  he 
would  be  seized  and  imprisoned  for  six  months, 
at  the  end  of  which  time  the  Saviour  would 
return  to  claim  his  inheritance  and  free  his 
servants  from  their  chains.  But  things  turned 
out  quite  otherwise.  Poor  Hoffmann,  who,  by  his 
enthusiasm,  eloquence,  and  power  of  organiza- 
tion, had  created  the  great  movement  in  the 
north-west,  never  again  recovered  his  liberty. 
He  died  in  his  dungeon  ten  years  later.  They 
could  not  keep  him  from  writing.  Deprived  of 
paper,  he  found  means  of  scratching  his  inspira- 
tions on  the  margins  of  the  devotional  books 
allowed  him.  Deprived  of  these,  he  succeeded 
in  inscribing  his  thoughts  on  his  linen. 

During  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Netherlands  and 
districts  of  the  Lower  Rhine  had  ever  been  a 
favourable  soil  for  heresies  and  quasi-heresies  in 
which  the  theory  of  a  common  life  and  the 
community  of  goods  formed  an  essential  part. 
There  it  was  that  the  Beghards  flourished  most, 
there  the  " Brethren  of  the  Common  Life"  had 
their  most  prosperous  communities.  But  by  the 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  in 

end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  premature  eco- 
nomic development  and  political  circumstances 
had  combined  to  create  a  strong  centralized 
Government  there,  which  was  not  favourable  to 
the  success  of  popular  movements,  religious  or 
political.  The  Hapsburgs,  to  whom  the  power 
of  the  extinct  house  of  Burgundy  in  these 
countries  had  reverted,  and  who  held  the  seven- 
teen provinces  under  their  centralized  sway  as 
part  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  were  a  strong 
support  of  the  Catholic  power  and  the  Papal 
pretensions,  which  they  found  indispensable  for 
their  own  purposes.  Irregular  forms  of  religious 
enthusiasm,  no  less  than  the  orthodox  Lutheran 
or  Zwinglian  reforming  tendencies,  were  put  down 
with  an  iron  hand.  But  revolutionary  views,  though 
driven  underground,  were  not  altogether  wanting, 
especially  among  the  guilds  of  journeymen- 
weavers.  Hither  also  the  doctrines  ofMelchior 
Hoffmann  were  carried,  though  they  made  little 
overt  progress,  owing  to  the  adverse  political 
conditions. 

It  was  not  Flanders  and  Brabant  that  became 
the  head-quarters  of  Anabaptism ;  it  was  to 
Holland,  and  more  especially  to  Amsterdam  that 
the  Brethren  flocked.  From  Amsterdam  and 


ii2  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

other  Dutch  towns  Melchiorite  missionaries  went 
forth  in  all  directions  through  the  neighbouring 
territories,  preaching  the  new  word,  proclaiming 
the  approaching  advent  of  Christ  and  his  Saints 
to  reign  over  the  world  in  righteousness,  to  cast 
down  the  mighty  from  their  seats  and  to  raise 
up  them  of  low  degree.  The  principal  organizer 
of  this  missionary  movement  was  one  Jan  Matthys, 
a  master-baker  of  Haarlem,  who  speedily  ac- 
quired the  leadership  of  the  Anabaptist  party 
in  Holland  owing  to  his  strong  personality  and 
persuasive  powers.  The  Brethren  saw  in  him 
a  new  and  Heaven-sent  prophet  to  whom  was 
delegated,  by  God  himself,  authority  to  confer 
apostleship.  The  doctrines  of  Matthys  were 
practically  identical  with  those  of  Melchior  Hoff- 
mann, with  the  difference  that  the  revolutionary 
side  with  Matthys  broke  all  bounds,  and  the 
notion  of  a  Holy  War  in  the  literal  sense  was 
placed  in  the  forefront  of  his  teaching.  What 
with  Melchior  was  prophecy  of  what  was  about 
to  happen  became  with  Matthys  a  direct  incite- 
ment to  revolt  as  a  religious  duty.  With  him 
there  was  to  be  no  delay.  It  was  the  duty  of 
all  the  Brethren  to  shew  their  zeal  by  at  once 
seizing  the  sword  of  sharpness  and  mowing  down 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  113 

the  godless  therewith.  In  this  sense  Matthys 
completed  the  transformation  of  Anabaptism  be- 
gun by  Hoffmann.  Melchior  had  indeed  rejected 
the  non-resistance  doctrine  in  its  absolute  form, 
but  he  does  not  appear  in  his  teaching  to  have 
uniformly  emphasized  the  point,  and  certainly 
did  not  urge  the  destruction  of  the  godless  as 
an  immediate  duty  to  be  fulfilled  without  delay. 
With  him  was  always  the  suggestion,  expressed 
or  implied,  of  waiting  for  the  signal  from  Heaven, 
the  coming  of  the  Lord,  before  proceeding  to 
action.  With  Matthys  there  was  no  need  for 
waiting,  even  for  a  day,  the  time  was  not  merely 
at  hand,  it  had  already  come.  The  same  causes, 
the  dislocation  of  the  economic  conditions  of 
mediaeval  life  and  the  rise  of  the  earlier  forms 
of  modern  capitalism  (described  at  length  in 
"German  Society  at  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages"  and  recapitulated  in  Chapter  I.  of  ^The 
Peasants  War"} — causes  which  immediately  led 
up  to  the  Peasant  revolt,  and  on  its  bloody  suppres- 
sion to  the  rapid  spread  of  the  earlier  Anabap- 
tism with  its  political  quietism  and  its  despondent 
doctrine  of  non-resistance — these  causes,  now 
that  the  memory  of  the  great  defeat  and  the 
despair  following  it,  had  faded  somewhat  from 


ii4  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  minds  of  men,  led  to  the  natural  man 
reasserting  himself  and  to  renewed  hopes  of  his 
being  saved  in  this  world  by  his  own  action. 
Add  to  this  that  the  Dutch  and  Low-German 
populations  of  the  north-west  had  either  not 
suffered  at  all  from  the  results  of  the  rebellion 
of  1525  or  only  to  a  very  limited  extent,  as 
compared  with  those  of  southern  and  south- 
eastern Germany,  and  were  therefore  more  or  less 
virgin  soil  from  a  revolutionary  point  of  view. 
Notwithstanding  some  opposition  at  first  to 
his  new  departure,  Jan  Matthys  soon  succeeded 
in  gathering  around  him  a  number  of  enthusiastic 
disciples.  If  Melchior  Hoffmann  had  been  Elijah 
and  if  he  were  lost  to  them  by  the  machina- 
tions of  the  godless,  was  not  Jan  Matthys  Enoch, 
who  should  follow  in  his  steps  and  bring  his 
work  to  a  conclusion?  Among  Matthys'  most 
intimate  followers  was  Jan  Bockelson  from 
Leyden.  Bockelson  was  a  handsome  and  strik- 
ing figure.  He  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  one 
Bockel,  a  merchant  and  Biirgermeister  of  Soe- 
venhagen,  by  a  peasant  woman  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Miinster,  who  was  in  his  service. 
After  Jan's  birth  Bockel  married  the  woman  and 
bought  her  her  freedom  from  the  villein  status 


MELCHIOR  HOFFMANN.  115 

that  was  hers  by  heredity.  Jan  was  taught  the 
tailoring-handicraft  at  Leyden,  but  seems  to  have 
received  little  schooling.  His  natural  abilities, 
however,  were  considerable,  and  he  eagerly 
devoured  the  religious  and  propagandist  litera- 
ture of  the  time.  Amongst  other  writings  the 
pamphlets  of  Thomas  Miinzer  especially  fascinat- 
ed him.  He  travelled  a  good  deal,  visiting 
Mechlin  and  working  at  his  trade  for  four  years 
in  London.  During  this  period  he  probably 
saved  a  little  money,  and  returning  home  married 
the  widow  of  a  seafaring  man.  He  now  set  up 
in  trade  on  his  own  account  and  seems  to  have 
travelled  as  far  as  Lisbon  on  business  affairs, 
but  business  apparently  was  not  his  vocation 
and  he  speedily  became  bankrupt.  He  then 
threw  himself  with  ardour  into  the  Anabaptist 
agitation,  coinciding  as  it  did  with  views  that  had 
always  enlisted  his  sympathies,  and,  scarcely 
twenty-five  years  old,  he  was  won  over  to  the 
new  propaganda  of  Jan  Matthys. 

Kerssenbroek,  a  courtly  chronicler  of  the  move- 
ment, alleges  that  Bockelson,  whom  he  sneers 
at  as  a  tailor  and  stage-king,  had  from  youth 
displayed  a  certain  literary  faculty  and  had 
written  plays  which  he  had  produced  ufor 


n6  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

money."  Bockelson  had  nothing  in  him  of  the 
asceticism  characteristic  of  so  many  of  his  Ana- 
baptist co-religionists.  Matthys  was  now  head 
of  the  Anabaptist  communities  in  Holland  and 
the  adjacent  territories.  These  were  more  homo- 
geneous in  theory  and  more  closely  federated  than 
those  in  south-eastern  Germany  that  dated  from 
the  earlier  years  of  the  movement,  and  he  soon 
managed  to  carry  things  entirely  his  own  way. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    REFORMATION    MOVEMENT    IN    THE   EPISCOPAL 
TERRITORIES    OF   MUNSTER. 

WESTPHALIA  was  swept  by  the  reformation  no 
less  than  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  In  the 
towns  the  same  political  and  social  causes  of 
discontent  existed  as  elsewhere,  and  the  same 
agitations  were  taking  place.  That  the  ferment 
of  the  time  was  by  no  means  altogether  the 
outcome  of  religious  zeal,  as  subsequent  historians 
have  persisted  in  representing  it,  was  recognised 
by  the  contemporary  heads  of  the  official  Refor- 
mation. Thus,  writing  to  Luther,  under  date 
August  29th,  1530,  his  satellite,  Melancthon,  has 
the  candour  to  admit  that  the  Imperial  Cities 
u  care  not  for  religion,  for  their  endeavour  is 
only  toward  domination  and  freedom."  As  the 
principal  town  of  Westphalia  at  this  time  may 
be  reckoned  the  chief  city  of  the  Bishopric  of 
Munster.  This  important  ecclesiastical  principality 
was  held  "  immediately  of  the  Empire."  It  had  as 


n8  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

its  neighbours  Ost-Friesland,  Oldenburg,  the 
Bishopric  of  Osnabriick,  the  county  of  Marck,  and 
the  Duchies  of  Berg  and  Cleves.  Its  territory 
was  half  the  size  of  the  present  province  of 
Westphalia,  and  was  divided  into  the  upper  and 
lower  diocese,  which  were  separated  by  the 
territory  of  Fecklenburg.  The  Bishop  was  a 
prince  of  the  empire  and  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant magnates  of  north-western  Germany, 
but  in  ecclesiastical  matters  he  was  under  the 
Archbishop  of  Koln.  The  diocese  had  been 
founded  by  Charles  the  Great.  The  ferment 
within  the  principality,  and  especially  in  the 
chief  town  Miinster,  which  had  been  suppressed 
in  the  spring  of  1526  by  the  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rities, and  an  attempt  to  revive  which  in  1527 
had  failed,  was  fanned  anew  into  flame  by  the 
famine  and  pestilence  that  marked  the  year 
1529.  At  harvest-time  in  that  year  the  frightful 
pestilence  known  as  the  English  "  sweating 
sickness"  broke  over  Westphalia.  "It  was  a 
violent  inflammatory  fever,  which  after  a  short 
rigour,  prostrated  the  powers  as  with  a  blow; 
and  amidst  painful  oppression  at  the  stomach, 
headache,  and  lethargic  stupor,  suffused  the 
whole  body  with  a  foetid  perspiration.  All 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 1 9 

this  took  place  within  the  course  of  a  few  hours, 
and  the  crisis  was  always  over  within  the  space 
of  a  day  or  night.  The  internal  heat  that  the 
patient  suffered  was  intolerable,  yet  every  re- 
frigerant was  certain  death."  The  devastation 
caused  was  frightful.  In  Dortmund,  out  of  five 
hundred  attacked  in  the  first  four  days,  four 
hundred  and  seventy  succumbed.  2  This  instance 
seems  to  fairly  well  represent  the  average  high 
percentage  of  deaths  to  cases.  The  harvest 
itself,  during  which  the  plague  began,  was  ex- 
ceptionally bad,  and  this,  added  to  the  general 
economic  changes  of  the  time,  caused  a  special 
local  rise  in  price,  such  as,  in  the  words  of  a 
contemporary,  "  no  man  had  ever  known  before." 
The  bushel  of  rye,  which  in  the  summer  of 
1529  had  been  three  and  a  half  (German) 
shillings,  rose  in  less  than  a  year  to  nine  shil- 
lings. The  harvest  of  1530  was  no  better  than 
that  of  the  previous  year,  so  that  in  1531  the 
price  of  barley  rose  to  fourteen  shillings  the 
bushel.  The  long  threatened  invasion  of  the 
Turks  now  seemed  imminent,  and  throughout 


1  Hecker's  "Epidemics  of  the  Middle  Ages'1  p.  181. 
-  Keller,  "  Wiedertaufer"  p.  291. 


120  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  empire  extraordinary  Turks'  taxes  were  im- 
posed.    These   in  some  cases  amounted  to  ten 
per   cent  of  the  total  income.     An  Archdeacon 
of    Dortmund,    writing    to    his    superior,    states 
that  uthe  misery  is  appalling  and  indescribable." 
Meanwhile    the    authorities   of  Miinster,    who 
had    hitherto   succeeded   in   keeping   down  any 
revolutionary    movement,    were    determined    to 
stamp  out  all  tendencies  to  innovation  in  Church 
or  State  so  far  as  this  was  possible.     But  it  was 
not    possible    in    the   long   run.     The    renewed 
outbreak  of  reforming  ideas  was  coincident  with  the 
time  of  calamity  and  scarcity  above  spoken  of.  Its 
occasion   was   the   preaching   of  a   hitherto  un- 
known  young   priest   at  a  church  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Miinster.     Bernhardt  Rothmann,  for 
such  was  his  name,  had  studied  theology  at  the 
university  of  Deventer.     He  subsequently  filled 
the  post  of  schoolmaster,  and  in  the  year  1529 
obtained    the   chaplaincy   of  the   church   of  St. 
Mauritz,  outside  the  walls  of  Miinster.     He  soon 
seems  to  have  acquired  relations  with  the  reform- 
ing  party   in   the   city    and   to   have   begun  to 
preach  heretical  doctrines.     The  result  was  that 
he  lost  his  post  as  chaplain  for  the  time  being. 
After  a  year  and  a  day,  however,  he  was  allowed 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.       i  2 1 


to  return,  but  his  views  had  acquired  increased 
strength  and  consistency  during  the  interval. 
Henceforward  (the  beginning  of  1531)  his 
church  became  the  centre  of  a  reforming 
movement.  On  the  night  of  Good  Friday,  1531, 
we  are  told,  there  were  disturbances  in  the  church 
on  the  part  of  Rothmann's  followers.  Although 
the  guildsmen  and  journeymen  were  the  first  to 
be  attracted  to  him,  it  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  he  soon  obtained  influence  among  members 
of  the  town  patriciate  and  even  over  certain  of 
the  Prince-Bishop's  Councillors.  He  ventured 
openly  to  allege  that  Bishop  Friedrich  himself 
was  not  unfavourable  to  his  teaching,  which  may 
possibly  have  been  true,  for  it  was  an  open 
question  with  many  of  the  spiritual  potentates 
of  the  Empire  at  the  time,  whether  to  take  sides 
with  the  Reformation  and  establish  their  power 
on  a  purely  political  basis,  as  secular  princes — 
as  Albrecht,  Duke  of  Prussia,  had  done — or  to 
throw  their  influence  into  the  opposite  scale,  the 
maintenance  of  the  status  quo,  political  and 
religious.  Rothmann's  preaching  at  first  had 
the  usual  reformation  colour.  True  religion  con- 
sisted in  faith  in  Christ  and  in  the  practice  of 
brotherly  love,  rather  than  in  the  performance 


122  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  outward  rites  and  ceremonies,  such  as  fasting, 
confession,  hearing  mass,  etc.  These  doctrines 
did  not  necessarily  imply  a  breach  with  the 
established  Catholicism,  but  constituted  what  was 
called  the  Erasmian  standpoint  of  many  within 
the  Church. 

The  time,  however,  had  now  come  when  the 
more  decided  and  energetic  of  the  malcontents 
with  the  current  Church  theory  and  practices 
were  forced  to  take  their  stand  with  one  or  other 
of  the  schismatic  reform  Churches  and  sects. 
After  a  journey  to  Wittenberg,  in  the  spring  of 
1531,  Rothmann  returned  to  Minister,  in  July, 
determined  to  overthrow  the  dominant  Church 
doctrine  and  organization.  This  becoming  evi- 
dent, we  cannot  be  surprised  that  the  church 
of  St.  Mauritz  was  soon  found  closed  against 
him.  Not  to  be  beaten,  he  tried  preaching  in 
the  churchyard,  but  the  Bishop,  who,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  case  before,  had  by  this 
time  fully  made  up  his  mind  to  stand  by  the 
old  order  of  things,  had  his  countermand  ready 
and  issued  an  inhibition  against  the  daring 
innovator.  Driven  from  his  quarters  outside  the 
walls,  Bernhardt  took  up  his  residence  within 
the  city,  where  he  was  received  by  his  friends 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      123 

with  open  arms.  The  agitation  in  Munster  now 
had  a  religious  leader  and  became  so  threaten- 
ing that  the  Cathedral  Chapter  sought  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Emperor,  who  induced  the  Bishop 
at  their  instance  to  issue  a  mandate  expelling 
the  young  preacher  from  the  Munster  territory. 
But  the  town  authorities  were  either  too  weak 
or  too  unwilling  to  take  the  necessary  steps  for 
giving  this  order  its  effect,  so  Rothmann  remain- 
ed in  Munster  jealously  guarded  by  his  friends 
and  the  centre  of  an  active  party.  The  religious 
reformation  in  Munster  now  for  the  first  time 
made  common  cause  with  the  political  discontent. 
On  January  23rd,  1532,  Rothmann  drew  up 
his  confession  of  faith,  which  the  party  immedi- 
ately laid  before  the  Rath  with  the  prayer  that 
it  might  be  granted  to  any  citizen  to  subscribe 
thereto.  The  response  was  not  unfavourable, 
and  on  Sunday,  February  i8th,  Rothmann  gave 
his  first  public  address  to  the  city  in  the  church- 
yard of  St.  Lamberti.  A  few  days  later,  he 
was  placed  in  possession  of  the  church  itself, 
and  almost  immediately  after  was  appointed,  by 
a  decree  of  the  Rath,  first  Evangelical  preacher 
of  the  parish  church  which  had  been  built  out 
of  municipal  funds.  At  the  same  time,  he  was 


124  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

granted   one   of  the  guild-houses  as  his  official 
place  of  residence. 

The  head  of  the  democratic-municipal  move- 
ment was  Bernhardt  Knipperdollinck,  a  cloth- 
merchant  materially  well-situated  and  an  excep- 
tionally able  speaker  and  leader  who,  in 
addition  to  several  other  citizens  of  credit 
and  renown,  forsook  his  class-interests  for  the 
cause  of  justice  to  the  common  man.  It  is 
reported  that  as  early  as  1524  Knipperdollinck 
made  a  voyage  on  a  Dutch  ship  with  the  sub- 
sequent Anabaptist,  Melchior  Rink,  to  Sweden, 
and  visited  Stockholm.  The  two  men  led  an 
iconoclastic  attack  on  the  churches,  only  stopped 
by  the  direct  intervention  of  the  Swedish  King. 
Knipperdollinck  was  a  disciple  of  Melchior  Rink 
in  the  earlier  years  of  the  Reformation  move- 
ment, before  the  rise  of  Anabaptism  properly 
so-called.  The  lower  German  territories,  penetrat- 
ed as  they  were  by  the  great  highway  of  the 
Rhine  and  thereby  in  easy  communication  with 
Switzerland  and  southern  Germany,  were  in  a 
favourable  geographical  position  for  feeling  the 
effects  of  every  new  tendency  among  the  refor- 
ming parties.  It  is  highly  probable  that  before 
the  propagandist  activity  of  Melchior  Hoffmann 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 2  5 

and  his  followers,  "  the  gospel  of  the  common 
man,"  as  Anabaptism  came  to  be  called,  had 
already  been  preached  in  these  regions  by 
journeymen  and  the  smaller  travelling  traders. 
In  any  case  the  population  of  Westphalia  was  well 
prepared  for  revolutionary  teaching,  both  political 
and  religious.  The  town  of  Miinster  itself,  like 
Koln,  and  the  other  larger  cities  of  north-west 
Germany,  had  been  deeply  stirred  by  the  events 
of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1525,  whilst,  as 
above  mentioned,  1527  saw  an  abortive  attempt 
to  revive  them  under  the  leadership  of  Knipper- 
dollinck.  But  although  up  to  the  time  of  which 
we  now  write  it  had  been  possible  to  smother 
signs  of  incandescence  in  the  inflammable  material 
that  abounded  within  the  walls,  the  inflammable 
material  remained  the  same  and  only  awaited  an 
effective  kindling  to  burst  out  into  conflagration. 
Unsatisfactory  as  the  new  turn  affairs  had 
taken  in  Miinster  at  the  beginning  of  1532  must 
have  been  to  the  Bishop  and  his  Chapter,  they 
were  powerless  to  do  anything  in  the  then  state 
of  public  feeling  in  the  city,  partially  backed, 
as  it  was  at  least,  by  the  municipal  authorities. 
About  two  months  after  the  presentation  to  the 
Rath  of  Rothmann's  Confession  of  Faith,  how- 


126  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

ever,  Bishop  Friedrich  abdicated,  and  Miinster 
received  a  new  Prince-Bishop  in  the  person  of 
Erick  of  Osnabruck  on  the  27th  of  March,  1532. 
Erick  had  the  reputation  of  favouring  moderate 
reforming  tendencies.  This  being  the  case,  the 
"  moderate"  party  in  Miinster,  who  under 
Friedrich  had  maintained  an  attitude  of  at  least 
passive  opposition,  at  once  ranged  themselves 
on  the  side  of  their  new  temporal  and  spiritual 
lord.  In  consequence,  an  episcopal  mandate  on 
the  i yth  of  April,  1532,  directed  against  Roth- 
mann  and  his  followers,  had  the  effect  of  inducing 
the  Rath,  together  with  the  heads  of  the  Guilds, 
to  order  Rothmann  to  cease  his  preaching  until 
further  notice.  This  order  was  the  occasion  of 
the  first  definite  breach  between  the  moderate 
and  the  extreme  parties  of  the  city.  The  com- 
mands of  the  Municipal  authorities  were  an- 
swered in  a  document,  dated  28th  April,  in 
which  the  "  common  man  "  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  holding  by  his  chosen  preacher  at  all  costs. 
The  struggle  having  been  thus  begun,  it 
remained  to  be  seen  which  side  would  come 
out  victorious  in  the  immediate  issue  pending. 
Neither  the  Episcopal  nor  the  Municipal  autho- 
rities possessed  adequate  means  for  giving  effect 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.       1 2  7 

to  their  decrees,  whilst  the  power  of  the  town- 
democracy  rose  higher  every  day.  In  the 
meantime,  on  the  I4th  of  May,  Bishop  Erick 
died,  and  for  over  a  fortnight,  pending  the  new 
election,  the  See  remained  vacant.  The  want 
of  an  over-lord  proved  favourable  to  the  agitation. 
On  the  first  of  June,  a  new  Prince-Bishop 
was  appointed  in  the  person  of  Count  Franz 
von  Waldeck,  formerly  a  Canon  of  Koln.  His 
elevation  and  his  whole  career  bound  up  his 
interests  with  his  powerful  Rhenish  neighbours, 
especially  with  his  spiritual  superior  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Koln,  and  these  being  important  pillars 
of  the  Imperial  and  Catholic  policy,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  imagine  on  what  side  the  power  of 
Mlinster's  new  lord  was  engaged.  On  the  first 

o     o 

of  July,  a  revolutionary  committee  composed  of 
thirty-six  burghers  was  formed  for  the  ostensible 
purpose  of  watching  events  in  the  interests  of 
the  democracy  and  of  the  new  religious  tenden- 
cies. Stormy  meetings  of  citizens  followed  in 
one  of  the  Guild-houses,  at  which  various  demands 
were  formulated,  the  chief  being  that  all  the 

o 

parochial  churches  should  be  handed  over  to 
Evangelical  preachers.  The  Rath,  feeling  its 
position  insecure,  signed  an  agreement  on  the 


128  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

1 5th  of  July,  conceding  the  democratic  demands, 
and  on  the  loth  of  August  all  the  churches  in 
the  gift  of  the  municipality  were  solemnly  handed 
over  to  the  new  teachers.  An  injunction  of 
July  1 2th,  under  the  sign-manual  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V,  directing  Bishop  Franz  to  expel 
Rothmann  and  proceed  against  other  disturbers 
of  order  with  the  utmost  rigour,  did  not  help 
matters.  A  mandate  summoning  the  town  to 
order  and  obedience  was  issued  without  result. 
The  influence  of  the  knighthood  of  the  surround- 
ing territory,  warning  and  threatening  the  town, 
was  then  brought  to  bear,  but  all  without  avail. 
The  burghers  declared  that  they  would  rather 
lose  worldly  goods  and  even  life  itself  than 
consent  to  surrender  the  true  worship  of  God. 
Thereupon  the  Prince-Bishop  and  his  advisers 
resolved  upon  resort  to  force  of  arms.  Letters 
were  sent  out  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
nobles  owning  allegiance  to  the  See,  enjoining 
them  to  forward  all  available  assistance  without 
delay. 

In  October  overt  action  began  inside  the 
town  on  the  part  of  the  Bishop's  minions  by 
the  sequestration  of  the  goods  of  the  disaffected 
citizens  and  by  indictment  of  the  leaders  of  the 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 2  9 

movement.  At  the  same  time,  communication 
between  the  different  quarters  of  the  town  was 
cut  off  by  chains  placed  across  the  streets,  and 
other  measures.  It  was  also  attempted  to  isolate 
the  town  itself.  The  citizens  now  saw  that  war 
was  meant,  and  accordingly  on  the  25th  of 
October  the  heads  of  the  different  city-ward- 
ships appeared  before  the  Rath,  demanding 
weapons  and  armour,  which  had  to  be  accorded 
them.  Immediately  after,  bodies  of  the  Bishop's 
horsemen  and  the  surrounding  knighthood  appear- 
ed before  the  gates.  Yet,  notwithstanding  these 
demonstrations,  the  Bishop  did  not  venture  at 
present  to  proceed  to  extremities.  His  prepara- 
tions were  not  complete.  He  had  neither  men, 
arms,  nor  money  enough.  Add  to  this,  the 
other  smaller  towns  of  the  diocese  shewed  signs 
of  beginning  to  grow  restive.  The  Evangelical 
party  was  making  great  progress  throughout 
the  whole  land.  The  town  of  Miinster  had, 
moreover,  sent  to  Philip  of  Hesse,  begging  him 
to  intervene.  The  Emperor,  himself  in  sore 

straits    owing:    to    the   Turkish   war,   had   been 
t> 

obliged   to    make   concessions  to  the  Niirnberg 
Protestants. 

Other   reasons   of  policy  combined  to  render 

9 


130  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

it  too  dangerous  for  the  Prince-Bishop  to  risk 
at  this  juncture  calling  down  upon  himself  the 
hatred,  if  not  the  overt  hostility,  of  all  the  Pro- 
testant interests  of  North  Germany.  The  report 
that  reached  his  ears  of  a  proposal  on  the  part 
of  influential  citizens  that  the  town  should  hand 
itself  over  to  Burgundy  also  increased  his  sense 
of  the  delicacy  of  the  situation.  The  result  was 
that  negotiations  were  entered  upon,  and  the 
intervention  of  the  Landgraf  of  Hesse  declined. 
At  first,  the  chances  of  an  understanding  being 
arrived  at  seemed  not  unfavourable.  The  Bishop 
on  his  side,  on  October  29th,  entered  into  a 
treaty  of  offence  and  defence  with  Evangelical 
Hesse. 

As  the  negotiations  were  continuing,  a  number 
of  spiritual  and  temporal  nobles  who  were  con- 
cerned therein  had  taken  up  their  abode  in  the 
little  township  of  Telgte,  within  the  town-territory 
of  Miinster.  The  burghers  now  bethought  them- 
selves of  using  this  circumstance  for  gaining  a 
point  of  vantage  over  the  Bishop,  and  on  Christmas 
night  about  a  thousand  armed  citizens  of  the 
town  guard  marched  out  and  occupied  the  little 
town  without  resistance.  Thus  on  the  morning 
of  the  26th  of  December  the  nobles  assembled 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 3 1 

there  found  themselves  prisoners  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  of  Munster.  This  coup,  however 
it  may  be  judged  from  an  ethical  standpoint, 
was  a  highly  politic  one,  since  the  town  now 
possessed  hostages  of  the  first  value,  a  fact  that 
tied  the  hands  of  the  aristocratic  followers  of 
the  Bishop.  It  also  gave  Philip  of  Hesse 
a  fresh  opportunity  of  intervening,  and  in 
fact  on  December  2Qth  an  understanding  was 
arrived  at  between  Philip  and  Franz,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  Councillors  were  despatched 
from  the  court  of  Hesse  to  Munster.  On  the 
8th  of  January,  1533,  the  new  negotiations  be- 
gan, and  Landgraf  Philip  promised  the  burghers 
to  use  his  friendly  offices  for  the  formal  admis- 
sion of  the  town  of  Munster  into  the  new 
Evangelical  League  of  Schmalkalden.  The  result 
was  that  Franz  and  his  Chapter  had  to  give  in, 
and  by  a  charter,  signed  and  sealed  on  February 
i4th,  1533,  Munster  was  formally  constituted  an 
Evangelical  town. 

The  other  small  towns  of  the  principality, 
however,  which  had  begun  to  follow  the  example 
of  Munster,  were  not  so  fortunate,  and  the 
authorities  were  fairly  successful  in  re-establish- 
ing the  old  order  of  things  in  them.  But  the 


132  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

agitation  continued  none  the  less,  varied  with 
stormings  of  churches  and  the  like,  not  alone 
in  the  towns,  but  even  in  the  country  districts 
far  and  wide  throughout  Westphalia,  so  that 
eventually  here  also  concessions  had  to  be  made. 
In  the  neighbouring  Prince-Bishopric  of  Minden 
serious  disturbances  had  taken  place  as  long 
ago  as  1529  and,  as  in  Minister,  a  committee 
of  thirty-six  burghers  had  been  appointed,  whose 
first  act  was  to  set  up  an  escaped  monk  as  a 
reformed  pastor  in  the  church  of  St.  Simeon. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  in  this  case  the  revolt  was 
confined  exclusively  to  "  the  common  man,"  the 
journeymen,  and  the  town  proletarians,  for  the 
guilds  held  steadily  by  the  patrician  Rath.  But, 
this  notwithstanding,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Evangelical  Count  Erich  von  Hoya  the  revolu- 
tion was  successful,  and  Minden  became  an 
Evangelical  town.  The  wealthier  religious  foun- 
dations had  in  all  cases  to  furnish  heavy  tribute 
to  the  municipal  coffers,  whilst  in  some  the 
buildings  were  turned  into  almshouses  and  schools 

o 

and  the  valuables  they  contained  confiscated  for 
civic  use.  In  Herford  similarly  an  ecclesiastical 
revolution  had  been  effected.  About  the  same 
time  Lippstadt  shewed  signs  of  religious  disaffec- 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      133 

tion.  In  Soest,  friction  between  the  Council  and 
the  general  assembly  of  the  citizens  had  broken 
out  two  years  before,  in  the  summer  of  1531. 
Here,  however,  the  demands  of  the  popular 
party  were  undisguisedly  economic;  the  immunity 
of  the  clergy  from  taxation  was  to  be  abolished, 
they  were  to  be  forbidden  to  exercise  any  trade 
in  the  town,  the  general  assembly  of  the  citizens 
was  to  have  control  of  the  town  government, 
and  things  of  a  like  nature  were  claimed. 

What  strikes  one  in  these  revolts  of  the  early 
years  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the  century,  as 
in  those  of  1525,  is  the  almost  precise  similarity 
of  procedure  in  all  cases.  One  almost  invari- 
able feature  of  them  is  the  establishment  by  the 
journeymen,  poorer  guildsmen,  and  town  prole- 
tarians, of  a  committee  of  public  safety  in 
opposition  to  the  patrician  Rath,  which  some- 
times received  the  support  of  the  official  guild 
influence,  and  sometimes  not,  but  which  was 
usually,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  successful 
in  seizing  the  lion's  share  of  the  executive  power 
and  in  making  the  legitimate  authorities  sub- 
servient to  its  will.  In  most  cases,  the  religious 
garb  in  which  the  movement  so  often  clothed 
itself  allows  us  plainly  to  see  through  to  the 


134  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

deeper-lying  social  discontent  which  constituted 
its  real  substance.  (Cf.  Keller,  u  Wiedert'dufer" 
pp.  102,  113.) 

Bernhardt  Rothmann,  although  at  first  at  least 
outwardly  Lutheran,  early  showed  signs  of  diver- 
gencies in  the  matter  of  Church  organisation 
from  the  orthodox  Lutheran  model.  After  his 
visit  to  Wittenberg  in  1531,  he  repaired  to 
Strasburg,  where  he  was  for  a  long  while  under 
the  influence  of  the  Zwinglian  Kapitan,  and  here 
he  was  converted  to  the  Zwinglian  ideas.  On 
his  return,  however,  he  seems  to  have  concealed 
his  change  of  view  until  his  power  was  established 
with  the  reforming  party  in  Miinster.  It  was 
not  till  the  summer  of  1532  that  he  openly  broke 
with  the  Lutheran  standpoint  and  began  to  play 
tricks  with  the  Sacrament.  One  of  these  tricks 
was  the  use  in  this  connection  of  a  kind  of  flat 
cake  called  Stute,  owing  to  which  he  acquired 
the  sobriquet  of  u  Stuten  Berndt,"  Berndt  being 
the  shortened  form  of  Bernhardt.  He  was  found 
expressing  strong  opinions  on  the  worthlessness 
of  the  ceremonial  observance.  His  views  in  this 
respect,  it  soon  became  evident,  went  as  far 
beyond  the  Zwinglian's  as  the  latter  went  be- 
yond the  Lutheran's.  He  did  not,  however,  meet 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 3  5 

with  any  strong  opposition  in  Miinster  itself, 
although  the  Lutherans  outside  began  to  feel 
uneasy,  and  Luther's  jackal,  Melancthon,  wrote 
him  an  admonitory  letter.  The  exact  nature  of 
the  model  intended  by  Rothmann  for  the  new 
Miinster  Church  organisation  we  do  not  know, 
but  we  may  certainly  conclude  that  it  was  mainly 
on  Zwinglian  lines. 

After  the  treaty  of  peace  between  the  town 
and  its  territorial  over-lord,  on  the  I4th  of 
February,  1533,  Miinster  became  the  centre  to 
which  religious  and  political  malcontents  flocked 
from  all  sides.  At  the  same  time,  now  that 
the  opposition  to  the  Catholic  Church  had  been 
successful,  the  divergencies  of  the  reform  party 
with  each  other  assumed,  as  was  only  natural, 
more  importance.  Differencies  arose  between 
Rothmann  and  the  newcomers.  Already  in  the 
summer  of  1532  a  preacher,  by  name  Heinrich 
Roll,  alias  "  Wassenberg,"  whence  his  disciples 
are  known  as  the  u  Wassenberger,"  owing  to 
his  opinions  had  been  driven  out  of  the  territory 
of  Jiilich  and  had  sought  refuge  in  Miinster. 
Roll,  or  u  Wassenberg,"  was  a  determined  oppo- 
nent of  infant  baptism.  He  was  at  first  opposed 
on  this  point  by  Rothmann,  although  otherwise 


136  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

they  worked  together.  By  May,  1533,  however, 
he  had  succeeded  in  gaining  Rothmann  over  to 
his  views. 

The  Lutheran  party,  headed  by  the  Syndicus 
of  the  town,  Van  der  Wieck,  became  now  seriously 
disturbed  at  the  direction  their  leading  pastor's 
teaching  and  practices  were  taking.  They  sent 
delegations  to  him,  earnestly  entreating  him  not 
to  compromise  the  religious  unity  of  the  reform 
party  by  the  discussion  of  these  knotty  and 
dangerous  points  of  doctrine.  Rothmann  insisted 
on  retaining  his  liberty  of  action.  He  and  his 
partisans  were  next  ordered  to  appear  before 
the  Rath,  which  summarily  directed  him  to 
abstain  from  the  promulgation  of  anti-Lutheran 
doctrines.  It  is  reported  that  at  the  time  he 
gave  an  undertaking  to  obey.  But,  however 
this  may  be,  we  find  him  a  few  days  later 
denouncing  infant  baptism  before  his  congrega- 
tion with  greater  energy  than  ever.  The  head 
of  the  Mlinster  Evangelical  Church  rightly 
thought  himself  strong  enough  to  defy  the 
Miinster  Council. 

He  and  his  partisans  now  proclaimed  the 
thesis  that  in  religious  matters  the  final  judgment 
rests  with  the  general  assembly  of  citizens.  To 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.       137 

point  the  moral  of  this,  one  of  the  Wassenberger 
party,  who  had  made  himself  particularly  ob- 
noxious to  the  Lutheran  Council  by  his  violent 
onslaughts  on  the  practice  of  infant  baptism, 
was  made  assistant  preacher  in  the  church  of 
St.  Lamberti  itself.  Doctrines  akin  to  those  of 
Anabaptism,  relative  to  mutual  assistance  and  the 
duty  of  the  division  of  worldly  substance  amongst 
believers  also  found  favour  with  the  preachers 
of  St.  Lamberti.  The  conflict  continued  in  a 
sub-acute  stage  throughout  the  summer  of  1533. 
It  was  made  acute  by  an  order  of  the  Rath 
enjoining  the  Reformed  pastors  of  the  town  to 
carry  out  the  practice  of  infant  baptism. 

The  matter  was  brought  to  a  definite  issue 
on  September  7th,  when  the  children  of  two 
Lutheran  Councillors  were  brought  to  the  church 
of  St.  Lamberti  to  be  christened.  Staprade, 
the  assistant  preacher,  refused  to  perform  the 
rite.  Thereupon,  as  it  would  appear,  Staprade 
himself,  as  a  non-burgher,  was  expelled  the  city, 
while  Rothmann  and  the  other  anti-Lutheran 
clergy  were  cited  before  the  Council  and  threaten- 
ed with  deposition  and  expulsion.  The  latter 
now,  in  a  letter  dated  the  i;th  of  September, 
took  up  the  gauntlet  and  renounced  their 


138  ItlSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

allegiance  to  the  Council,  alleging  that  they 
were  enjoined  by  Holy  Writ  to  obey  God 
rather  than  man.  The  Rath  answered  this 
move  by  deposing  the  signatories  and  closing 
their  churches  against  them.  Immense  excitement 
seized  the  "common  man"  in  consequence.  So 
threatening  did  matters  look  indeed,  that  the 
Rath  saw  itself  compelled  to  a  measure  of 
compromise.  They  consented  to  grant  Roth- 
mann  under  certain  restrictions  the  church  of 
Servetius.  Rothmann  now  made  himself  con- 
spicuous by  a  life  of  penitence,  rigour,  and  zeal 
in  works  of  charity,  which  increased  his  reputa- 
tion as  a  Heaven-sent  teacher  day  by  day. 
Meanwhile  the  new  theories  of  brotherly  love, 
the  surrender  of  worldly  goods  to  poorer  brethren, 
and  the  like,  spread  rapidly.  Many  well-to-do 
citizens  literally  fulfilled  the  injunction  of  selling 
all  they  had  and  giving  to  the  poor,  those 
possessing  houses  destroyed  their  rent  deeds, 
creditors  forgave  their  debtors  what  was  owing 
them,  and  all  who  had  embraced  the  new  faith 
poured  out  their  wealth  in  acts  of  charity.  Roth- 
mann now  set  up  a  printing-press  in  his  house, 
from  which  pamphlets  and  broad  sheets  were 
issued  and  carried  by  various  means  into  far 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.       139 

distant   territories,    especially    into    those  of  the 
north-west. 

From  this  time  forward,  the  authority  of  the 
Rath  diminished  daily,  whilst  the  influx  of  foreign 
elements  into  the  city  continued  unabated.  On 
November  6th  an  agreement  was  entered  into 
between  Rothmann's  party  and  the  Council,  by 
which  the  former  agreed  that  certain  of  their 
preachers  should  leave  the  town,  but  that  Roth- 
mann  should  remain  and  the  rank  and  file  of 
his  followers  be  unmolested.  At  the  same  time 
the  Council  took  steps  to  import  new  u  Evangel- 
ical "  pastors  after  its  own  heart,  to  replace  the 
deposed  and  exiled  Rothmannites  or  Wassen- 
bergers.  The  Council  now  seemed  to  be  in  a 
fair  way  of  recovering  its  authority,  when  a 
sudden  influx  of  the  most  fanatical  and  energetic  of 
Anabaptist  elements  flooded  the  town  and  upset 
all  its  calculations.  These  were  our  friends  the 
so-called  Melchiorites,  active  partisans  of  Jan 
Matthys  and  his  itinerant  apostles.  Within  the 
last  few  weeks,  the  party  of  Matthys  had  grown 
to  extraordinary  dimensions,  persecution  had 
broken  down  the  opposition  of  the  non-resistants 
to  Matthys'  propaganda  of  the  sword,  whilst 
the  other  Melchiorites,  who  awaited  a  sign  from 


140  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Heaven  that  the  day  was  at  hand,  were  made 
confident  by  the  declarations  of  Matthys'  mis- 
sionaries, who  went  forth  after  the  manner  of 
their  New  Testament  exemplars  in  pairs  and 
assured  the  wavering  that  the  sign  had  al- 
ready come,  that  Enoch  had  already  appeared 
to  announce  the  great  day.  Enoch,  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  say,  was  none  other  than  Jan 
Matthys  himself,  as  to  whose  signs  and  wonders 
the  wandering  prophets  were  eloquent.  Where- 
ever  they  came,  new  converts  to  Anabap- 
tism  in  the  sense  of  Jan  Matthys  were  made. 
Communities,  often  with  a  numerous  member- 
ship, were  founded.  Shepherds,  or  u Bishops" 
as  they  were  now  sometimes  called,  were  ap- 
pointed, and  the  apostles  would  pass  on.  The 
one  topic  of  conversation  along  their  track  among 
the  new  converts,  whether  in  the  journeymen's 
guild-room,  on  the  highways  or  in  the  fields, 
was  the  imminent  day  of  retribution  when  the 
mighty  should  be  cast  down  from  their  seats 
and  the  man  of  low  degree  should  be  raised 
up,  when  the  godless  world  should  be  smitten  with 
a  two-edged  sword  and  the  saints  should  reign  for 
ever  in  the  new  Kingdom  of  God  about  to 
arise  on  the  ruins  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world. 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 4 1 

Notwithstanding  the  success  of  the  moderate 
party  in  Miinster  in  getting  rid  of  the  recalci- 
trant pastors  and  in  installing  good  evangelical 
Lutherans  in  their  stead,  there  was  one  weak 
place  in  their  position,  and  that  was  the  retention 
in  the  city  of  the  head  and  front  of  the  offend- 
ing movement,  Bernhardt  Rothmann.  It  was 
only  too  obvious  that  the  city  Council  lacked 
the  power  or  the  courage  to  remove  the  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  the  order  they  aimed  at 
establishing.  The  followers  of  Rothmann,  re- 
inforced by  kindred  spirits  in  the  shape  of 
Anabaptist  strangers  driven  by  persecution  on 
the  one  side  and  fanaticism  on  the  other  from 
north  and  south,  east  and  west,  but  especially 
from  the  west  and  north-west,  who  had  sought 
a  haven  of  refuge  in  the  chosen  city  of  Miinster, 
soon  took  heart  of  grace.  Rothmann  himself 
developed  an  unpleasing  activity  in  preach- 
ing his  favourite  doctrines  in  conventicles  and 
otherwise. 

On  September  8th,  1533,  a  journeyman  smith 
began  openly  to  proclaim  the  doctrines  of  Ana- 
baptism  in  the  churchyard  of  St.  Lamberti.  The 
Rath,  stirred  by  this  to  spasmodic  action  and 
seeing  plainly  that  behind  the  young  smith  stood 


142  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 

Bernhardt  Rothmann,  three  days  later  plucked 
up  courage  to  issue  an  order  for  expulsion 
against  the  latter,  at  the  same  time  withdrawing 
from  him  the  protection  of  the  authorities, 
which  in  other  words  meant  a  sentence  of  out- 
lawry. Rothmann  coolly  told  the  bailiff  who 
brought  him  the  decree  that  he  stood  in  no  need 
of  the  protection  of  these  fathers  of  the  city, 
that  he  was  quite  content  to  rely  upon  God 
and  his  disciples  for  all  the  protection  he  want- 
ed. He  now  openly  shewed  his  contempt  for 
the  town  government  by  not  only  refusing  to 
quit  the  city,  but  by  beginning  to  preach  again 
without  any  attempt  at  concealment.  The  answer 
of  the  authorities  was  the  arrest,  not  of  Roth- 
mann himself,  but  of  the  young  smith  whose 
preaching  had  given  rise  to  the  Rattis  action. 
This  sufficed  to  raise  a  hornet's  nest.  The  day 
after  the  arrest,  September  i6th,  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  all  the  members  of  the 
smiths'  Guild  assembled  in  their  guild-room,  and 
proceeded  to  the  town-hall  (Rathhaus],  clamor- 
ously demanding  the  release  of  their  colleague. 
As  far  as  one  can  gather,  the  Guild-masters,  no 
less  than  the  journeymen,  were  to  the  fore  in 
this  action.  So  threatening  was  the  attitude  of 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      143 

the  assembled  smiths  that  the  Council  had  to 
give  way,  with  the  result  that  Johann  Schroeder, 
the  imprisoned  smith,  after  being  handed  over 
to  them,  was  carried  in  triumph  through  the 
principal  streets.  On  learning  of  the  powerless- 
ness  of  the  authorities  to  enforce  their  decrees 
against  the  will  of  the  popular  party,  the  banish- 
ed preachers  ventured  without  further  ceremony 
to  return,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  they 
were  all  back  in  the  town.  On  New  Year's 
Day,  1534,  Roll  took  possession  of  the  pulpit 
in  one  of  the  city  churches,  once  more  to  thunder 
out  his  invectives  against  Luther  and  all  his 
followers. 

Finally,  on  January  5th  or  6th,  two  of  the 
apostles  of  Jan  Matthys  entered  the  town,  pro- 
claiming that  God  had  sent  a  new  prophet  on 
earth  to  herald  the  end  of  the  dispensation  of 
this  world  and  the  beginning  of  the  millennium. 
They  exhorted  all,  as  they  valued  their  salva- 
tion, to  be  rebaptized.  Miinster,  they  said,  was 
to  be  the  new  Jerusalem  where  the  saints  were 
to  reign  in  unity  and  brotherly  love,  constrained 
by  no  law  and  no  authority.  God,  they  said, 
had  revealed  to  his  prophet  that  it  was  by  means 
of  the  elect  themselves,  acting  as  his  instruments, 


M4  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

that  his  kingdom  should  be  established.  A  rage 
for  rebaptism  seized  upon  all,  the  leaders  no 
less  than  the  rank  and  file  submitting  to  it, 
Rothmann  and  Roll  amongst  the  rest.  Having 
effected  their  object  and  sewn  the  seed,  the 
Dutchmen,  a  day  or  two  later,  passed  on,  but 
their  advent  had  lain  the  train  of  all  that  followed. 
Miinster  had  become  Anabaptist ;  whole  sections 
of  the  population  went  mad  with  excitement, 
citizens  and  strangers,  guildmasters  and  journey- 
men, even  monks  and  nuns,  were  swept  into 
the  whirlpool  of  fanaticism. 

On  the  1 3th  of  the  month,  the  young  enthu- 
siast Jan  Bockelson  of  Leyden  arrived  in  Miin- 
ster accompanied  by  a  colleague,  proclaiming 
themselves  apostles  of  God  through  his  prophet 
Jan  Matthys.  It  was  not  the  first  time  that 
Bockelson  had  been  in  Munster,  having  resided 
there  for  three  months  the  previous  year,  and 
it  was  on  his  return  to  Leyden  later  in  the 
summer  that  he  received  the  call  from  the  prophet 
of  Haarlem,  and  began  to  devote  his  life  to  the 
new  propaganda.  The  young  apostle  was  at 
this  time  twenty-five  years  of  age,  handsome  in 
face  and  figure,  and  with  an  eloquence  well- 
calculated  to  arouse  enthusiasm.  He  soon  had 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 4  5 

all  the  women  of  the  movement  at  his  feet, 
and  became  the  foremost  figure.  Immediately 
he  entered  into  relations  with  the  leaders  of  the 
popular  party,  both  on  the  religious  and  the 
political  side,  becoming  intimate  with  Rothmann 
and  Roll,  and,  above  all,  with  the  well-to-do 
burgher  and  cloth-merchant,  Bernhardt  Knipper- 
dollinck,  whose  daughter  he  gained  in  marriage. 
The  aims  of  Knipperdollinck  were  essentially 
political,  but  the  interests  of  the  political  and 
religious  revolutionists  seemed  now  identical. 
Rothmann,  Roll,  and  the  earlier  leaders  now  fell 
into  the  background.  They  had,  it  is  true,  no 
choice  being  left  them,  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  new  movement,  and  to  allow  them- 
selves, whether  they  would  or  not,  to  be  carried 
away  with  it.  The  popular  party,  the  poor 
guildsmen,  the  journeymen,  the  floating  popula- 
tion of  proletarians  and  strangers,  soon  made 
it  evident  that  they  meant  carrying  matters  alike 
in  politics,  in  social  relations,  and  in  religion,  to 
their  logical  conclusion.  Rothmann  seemed  to 
have  had  a  presentiment  of  the  turn  things 
would  take  some  months  before,  when  he  advised 
a  friend  of  his,  through  the  latter's  wife,  who 
sought  his  counsel,  to  accept  an  appointment 


146  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

elsewhere    than    in    Minister,    ufor,"    said    he, 
41  things  will  not  go  well  here!" 

From  this  time  forward,  the  attempt  to  put 
the  new  doctrines  in  practice  became  more  and 
more  the  vogue.  Women  played  a  prominent 
part  in  this  new  phase.  Gold,  costly  vessels, 
and  jewellery  of  all  sorts  were  brought  into  the 
common  fund.  Meanwhile  the  immigration  of 
outside  elements  continued.  After  a  time  Jan 
Matthys  himself  was  summoned  by  Bockelson 
to  take  part  in  the  foundation  of  the  new  mil- 
lennial order  of  things.  Matters  were  now  plainly 
past  the  power  of  Rath  or  any  other  worldly 
authority,  but  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the 
governing  body  of  Munster  surrendered  without 
at  least  the  show  of  a  struggle.  On  January  8th, 
an  attempt  had  been  made  by  the  Council  to 
obtain  satisfaction  in  the  matter  of  the  returned 
preachers,  though  nothing  came  of  it  but  abortive 
negotiations.  Serious  differences  now  broke  out 
within  the  governing  body  itself.  A  week  later, 
however,  a  decree  of  expulsion  was  with  some 
difficulty  carried,  and  the  preachers,  with  the 
exception  of  Rothmann  himself,  were  conducted 
outside  the  walls  by  the  city  constables.  But 
they  were  no  sooner  without  the  gate  than 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      147 

they  were  met  by  a  body  of  their  friends,  and 
brought  back  round  the  rampart  of  the  town 
to  another  gate,  at  which  they  re-entered. 

The  authorities  now  appealed  to  the  Bishop, 
who  on  January  23rd  issued  a  mandate  enjoining 
them  in  accordance  with  the  Imperial  edicts  to 
root  out  the  plague  of  Anabaptism  that  had 
infected  the  town,  and  threatening  all  who 
favoured  Anabaptist  doctrines  with  the  ban  of 
the  Empire.  But  this  episcopal  blind  thunder 
did  not  alter  the  course  of  events.  The  agita- 
tion continued  unabated.  At  dusk  on  January 
28th,  an  attempt  to  seize  the  town  was  made 
by  the  revolutionary  party.  Armed  bands 
appeared  at  several  points,  closing  the  streets 
with  chains  and  committing  other  insurrectionary 
acts,  but  the  disturbance  was  damped  down  by 
the  leaders  of  the  movement,  who,  at  a  meeting 
held  in  Knipperdollinck's  house,  decided  that 
the  moment  for  overt  action  had  not  arrived. 
On  the  3Oth,  the  Council  held  a  conference 
with  the  heads  of  the  Guilds,  the  result  of 
which  was  a  decision  to  maintain  personal 
freedom  in  matters  of  religion,  but  to  resolutely 
discourage  any  attempts  at  provocation  on  either 
side. 


148  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The  decisive  step  by  which  the  Anabaptists 
proclaimed  themselves  in  insurrection  was  taken 
on  February  Qth,  1534,  when,  at  seven  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  five  hundred  armed  Anabaptists 
suddenly  seized  the  market-place  and  certain 
doors  of  the  Rathhaiis.  The  party  of  order 
quickly  gathered  together  its  forces.  Evangel- 
icals and  Catholics  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder 
in  the  work  of  defending  the  old  kingdom  of 
this  world  in  Mlinster,  as  represented  by  the 
Council  and  governing  authorities,  against  the 
new  kingdom  of  God  as  represented  by  the 
Anabaptist  saints.  All  the  streets  and  narrow 
lanes  leading  up  to  Ueberwasser  Kirchhof  were 
protected  by  ordnance.  The  towers  of  the 
Cathedral,  the  so-called  "  Mirror  Tower  "  (Spiegel 
thurm)  and  other  parts  of  vantage  were  garrison- 
ed, and  the  wooden  bridges  leading  over  the 
river  were  torn  down,  with  one  exception. 
Meanwhile  the  streets  were  in  a  state  of  uproar. 
Enthusiasts  rushed  through  them  swinging 
weapons  in  the  air  and  proclaiming  the  day  of 
the  Lord.  On  the  other  side,  an  urgent  mes- 
sage was  despatched  to  the  Prince-Bishop.  The 
latter  promised,  without  prejudice  to  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  town,  to  enter  with  a 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      149 

numerous  body  of  cavalry  and  restore  order,  if 
the  civic  authorities  would  leave  two  gates  open 
to  him.  But  the  Evangelicals  were  mistrustful 
of  the  Episcopal  assurances,  and  with  good  reason 
feared  that,  if  successful,  the  opportunity  would 
be  used  for  crushing  the  Reformation  in  Munster 
altogether.  The  Anabaptists  now  sent  some 
horsemen  to  the  principal  armoury  situated  at 
the  so-called  Aegidi-gate  to  seize  the  cannon. 
The  party  of  order,  on  hearing  of  this,  immediately 
despatched  fifty  armed  men  to  forestall  them. 
These  only  succeeded  in  laying  hands  on  one 
piece  of  ordnance  however.  Messages  were 
now  sent  to  the  neighbouring  villages,  calling 
on  the  peasants  to  come  to  the  assistance  of 
order  and  Munster.  Night  coming  on  put  an 
end  for  the  moment  to  actual  hostilities  though 
not  to  the  excitement  in  the  town.  The  fanatics 
continued  to  parade  the  streets,  women  as  well 
as  men,  singing,  praying,  and  declaring  that 
Heaven  was  opening  and  that  a  legion  of  angels 
was  about  to  descend  on  the  town  to  deliver 
the  saints  and  root  out  the  godless.  But  the 
cooler  heads  of  the  revolutionary  party  took 
care  to  place  guards  at  the  several  positions 
occupied  by  them,  at  the  various  gates  that  they 


150  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

had  seized,  at  the  principal  marketplace  (Prinzipal- 
markt)  and  the  Rathhaus. 

Similar  measures  were  taken  by  the  Evangel- 
icals and  Catholics,  now  united  on  behalf  of  the 
Council  and  government  of  the  town.  The 
rallying  cry  of  the  Anabaptists  was  "  Father," 
that  of  the  Party  of  Order  was  u  Christ."  At 
dawn,  Knipperdollinck  was  arrested  in  the  quar- 
ter of  the  town  known  as  the  "  Ueberwasser," 
by  the  second  Biirgermeister.  Whilst  endeavour- 
ing to  raise  the  populace,  he  was  incarcerated 
with  twenty-five  other  Anabaptists  in  a  tower 
on  the  city  wall  hard  by.  The  belfry  of  the 
church  of  St.  Lamberti  now  began  to  boom 
forth  its  call  to  arms  and  the  streets  to  fill  with 
excited  crowds  and  to  resound  with  the  clashing 
of  weapons.  The  two  Biirgermeisters,  the  Syndic, 
and  several  Councillors  now  hurriedly  met  in 
the  Ratkhaus,  which  the  insurgents  would  seem 

o 

to  have  evacuated,  but  the  street  in  front  of 
the  Municipal  buildings  rapidly  filled  with  armed 
rebels,  clamorously  demanding  the  release 
of  their  imprisoned  brethren.  The  authorities 
temporised  whilst  their  Catholic  and  Evangelical 
allies  hurried  up  to  defend  the  civic  head- 
quarters. The  battle  lasted  for  some  hours, 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      151 

when  the  party  of  order  was  compelled  to  re- 
treat. At  this  moment,  the  country  people, 
who,  in  respo  nse  to  the  summons  of  the  previous 
evening,  had  since  early  morning  begun  to  arrive, 
suddenly  appeared  to  aid  the  defence.  A  report 
at  the  same  time  was  spread  that  the  Bishop 
with  his  men-at-arms  was  marching  on  the  city. 
This  circumstance,  more  than  the  arrival  of  the 
reinforcements,  made  the  Anabaptists,  who  up 
to  this  time  had  had  the  best  of  the  fight,  willing 
to  negotiate.  This  was  probably  further  facili- 
tated by  the  fact  that  the  Chief  Biirgermeister, 
Tylbeck,  was  known  to  be  secretly  sympathetic 
to  their  cause.  The  negotiations  were  opened, 
Tylbeck  having  replied  to  the  Prince-Bishop's 
messengers  sent  to  apprise  him  of  the  coming 
of  his  over-lord,  that  he  required  no  outside 
help  for  the  restoration  of  order  in  the  city. 
An  agreement  was  come  to  by  which  freedom 
in  religious  matters  was  to  be  strictly  maintained, 
whilst  in  secular  affairs  the  lawful  authority  was 
to  be  obeyed.  All  prisoners  were  set  free  and 
a  general  amnesty  proclaimed.  Peasants  who 
had  come  to  assist  law  and  order  were  regaled  in 
the  Rathhaus  at  the  cost  of  the  town,  after  which 
they  returned  home  to  their  respective  villages. 


152  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

By  the  time  this  peace  was  concluded,  the 
Bishop  with  his  horsemen  had  arrived  within 
striking  distance  of  Munster.  On  hearing  of  the 
turn  things  had  taken  within  the  walls,  he  was 
furious,  but,  with  the  town  closed  against  him, 
there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  go  back. 
Tylbeck,  it  is  alleged,  with  a  view  of  keeping 
the  matter  in  his  own  hands,  had  not  communi- 
cated to  his  colleagues  the  letter  he  had  received 
from  the  Bishop  the  previous  evening,  announc- 
ing his  intention  of  entering  the  city  with  an 
armed  force  on  the  morrow.  But  it  was  perfectly 
evident  that  the  Bishop,  though  for  the  moment 
compelled  to  desist  from  his  intention,  would 
never  accept  the  "dogs'  peace,"  as  the  party 
of  order  afterwards  termed  it,  that  had  just  been 
concluded.  If  it  was  to  be  maintained,  the  city 
would  have  to  prepare  for  the  eventuality  of  a 
siege  at  the  hands  of  its  Prince-Bishop.  In  view 
of  this,  large  numbers  of  well-to-do  burghers, 
who  themselves  disapproved  of  the  arrangement 
that  had  been  come  to,  left  the  city  during  the 
next  few  days. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  stream  of  Anabaptist 
immigration  received  a  further  and  hitherto  un- 
paralleled impetus,  not  merely  from  the  immunity 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 53 

that  now  seemed  guaranteed  under  the  shadow 
of  St.  Lamberti,  but  from  the  action  of  Knip- 
perdollinck,  through  Rothmann,  who  by  this  time 
had  become  the  mere  instrument  of  the  new 
prophets.  Knipperdollinck  and  the  prophets 
made  Rothmann  write  a  circular  letter  to  the 
Anabaptist  communities  in  other  towns,  couched 
as  follows : — 

"Bernhardt  Rothmann,  the  servant  of  the 
Heavenly  Father,  to  all  His  brethren  who  dwell 
among  the  heathen,  health  and  divine  blessing ! 
Be  it  known  to  ye  all  that  the  Heavenly  Father 
hath  sent  unto  us  certain  prophets  who  proclaim 
the  pure  word  of  God  with  most  marvellous 
gift  of  tongue  and  in  the  spirit  of  everlasting 
salvation !  He  who  seeketh  his  everlasting  salva- 
tion, let  him  forsake  all  worldly  goods,  and  let 
him  with  wife  and  with  children  come  unto 
us  here  to  the  New  Jerusalem,  to  Zion,  to  the 
Temple  of  Solomon !  Besides  the  treasure 
in  Heaven  it  shall  be  requited  to  him  tenfold 
in  money  and  goods  for  that  which  he  hath 
left  behind  him ! "  This  letter  was  despatched 
by  special  messengers,  far  and  wide,  to  a 
large  number  of  towns,  to  almost  all  the  towns 
of  Westphalia,  to  Osnabruck,  Soest,  Wesel, 


154  XISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

etc.  and  to  many  other  territories  as  well,  as 
far  as  Liibeck  and  Hamburg.  Heinrich  Krechting, 
a  local  magnate  of  the  town  of  Schoppingen, 
was  the  leader  of  a  little  body  of  the  faithful 
to  the  new  Zion.  He  and  his  party,  who  brought 
a  baggage  train  with  them,  were  seized  at  a 
small  town  two  hours  from  Miinster,  where  he 
was  imprisoned.  His  son,  however,  succeeded 
in  escaping,  and  hurrying  to  Miinster  brought 
back  with  him  a  body  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
Anabaptists,  who  liberated  his  father,  and  took 
him  and  his  safely  to  the  haven  of  the  saints. 
Heinrich's  brother,  Bernhardt  Krechting,  a  pastor, 
soon  afterwards  arrived,  bringing  with  him  his 
congregation.  Peter  Schwering,  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant, also  led  a  body  of  followers  from  Coesfeld. 
For  days  the  roads  leading  to  Miinster  were 
crowded  with  Anabaptist  pilgrims  from  every 
side,  some  alone  with  the  staff  in  their  hands, 
others  in  parties  consisting  of  their  families  and 
friends,  bringing  with  them  waggons  containing 
such  of  their  household  stuff  as  they  could 
transport;  large  numbers  mad  with  religious 
excitement,  dancing  and  singing  "  Hosannah.1' 
Holland  and  Friesland  furnished  the  largest 
contingents  among  the  pilgrims. 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 5  5 

The  peace  had  scarcely  been  concluded,  when, 
as  we  are  informed,  (by  hostile  witnesses  certainly) 
the  women  of  the  Anabaptist  party  began 
on  a  larger  scale  the  pious  orgies  which  had 
been  going  on  at  intervals  for  weeks  past 
in  Anabaptist  circles  of  the  city.  Knipperdol- 
linck's  wife  and  mother-in-law,  it  is  stated, 
rushed,  with  black  veils  over  their  heads,  up 
and  down  the  streets,  calling  the  women  to 
repentance.  The  response  was  immense.  Women 
flocked  after  them  from  all  wards  of  the  city 
through  the  streets  to  the  chief  market-place, 
their  hair  flying  in  the  wind,  their  clothes  dis- 
ordered, and,  in  some  cases,  half  naked.  One 
eye-witness  relates  that  they  threw  themselves 
on  their  faces  on  the  ground,  and  tore  their 
breasts,  stretching  their  arms  out  so  as  to  form 
a  cross,  whilst  others  lay  on  their  backs,  foaming 
at  the  mouth,  staring  up  at  the  sky  with  a  look 
of  anxious  expectation.  They  would  then  spring 
up,  raving,  grinding  their  teeth,  and  clapping 
their  hands,  invoking  blessings  and  curses  from 
Heaven  at  the  same  time.  Groups  would  utter 
loud  shouts,  crying  that  Heaven  would  protect 
the  New  Jerusalem.  Everything  was  counted  by 
these  female  fanatics  as  a  sign  sent  from  Heaven ; 


156  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

a  stone  appearing  out  of  the  snow  that  lay  in 
the  streets,  a  pool  of  blood  proceeding  from  an 
ox  recently  killed  in  the  slaughter-house  hard 
by.  All  was  miraculous,  a  token  sent  as  an 
encouragement  or  a  warning  to  the  saints. 
Actual  hallucinations  were  common.  Some  saw 
a  great  fire  with  blue  and  black  flames  descend 
from  Heaven  and  cover  the  city ;  hysterical 
laughter  and  crying  were  heard  on  all  hands. 
Ever  and  anon  a  group  of  men  and  women 
would  be  seen  rushing  through  the  streets 
shouting  u  Repent  and  be  baptized !  Slay  the 
unbaptized  heathen!"  Suddenly  the  rays  of  the 
sun  struck  a  newly-gilded  weather-cock  on  one 
of  the  patrician  houses  of  the  market-place, 
dazzling  the  eyes  of  those  who  looked  that  way. 
The  assembled  women  fell  on  their  faces  and, 
with  folded  hands,  cried,  u  Oh !  Father,  Father, 
most  excellent  King  ofZion,  spare  thy  people!" 
Seeing  the  effect  it  produced,  the  weather-cock 
was  removed  by  a  sober-minded  burgher,  and 
the  ecstasy  of  the  crowd  stopped  at  once. 
Within  the  next  few  days,  the  Btirgermeister 
Tylbeck,  who,  while  secretly  sympathising  with 
the  Anabaptists,  had  remained  nominally  the 
head  of  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  city, 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 5  7 

went  over  openly  to  the  revolutionary  party. 
Rothmann,  after  having,  as  stated  formerly,  re- 
baptized  himself,  conferred  the  symbol  on  others, 
especially  on  the  nuns  who  daily  fled  from  the 
convents  in  the  town. 

Amongst  those  to  arrive  within  the  next  few 
days  was  none  other  than  the  greatest  of  the 
prophets,  the  ci-devant  master-baker  of  Haarlem, 
Jan  Matthys  himself,  bringing  with  him  his  newly 
wedded  wife,  a  beautiful  nun  from  the  Convent 
of  St.  Agnes  in  his  native  city.  Matthys  now 
for  some  time  had  been  convinced  that  Strasburg, 
which  he  had  formerly  in  accordance  with  his 
master,  Melchior  Hoffmann,  deemed  the  destined 
seat  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  had  been  rejected, 
and  that  the  Divine  choice  had  fallen  on  the 
capital  of  the  great  Westphalian  bishopric. 
Matthys,  in  his  character  of  the  prophet  Enoch, 
the  head  of  all  the  prophets  of  the  new  gospel, 
on  his  arrival  formally  proclaimed  Miinster  as 
the  city  revealed  to  him  by  God  as  the  seat 
of  the  millennial  kingdom,  in  the  place  of  Stras- 
burg rejected  for  its  unbelief.  Against  the  city 
of  the  saints,  said  he,  the  powers  of  this  world 
would  be  able  to  achieve  nothing. 

One    day,    the   chief  market-place    was   filled 


158  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

with  the  faithful,  come  to  hear  an  announcement 
of  the  great  prophet.  When  Matthys  appeared, 
he  had  with  him  two  stone  tablets  which  he 
placed  on  the  steps  of  a  well  opposite  the  wall 
of  St.  Lamberti's  churchyard.  He  then  announced 
to  the  awestruck  multitude  that  he  had  just 
spoken  with  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  that  the  spirit 
of  the  living  God  was  upon  him,  declaring  that 
he  was  ordained  to  impart  to  them  the  will  of 
God.  This  was,  first  and  foremost,  that  he  and 
Jan  van  Leyden  (Bockelson)  should  instruct  them 
in  the  pure  and  holy  service  of  God,  such  as 
was  proper  to  a  chosen  people.  Matthys  con- 
cluded with  the  adjuration,  u  Almighty  be  our 
doctrine  and  our  power,  and  praised  be  the  will 
of  our  Father,  Who  has  sent  us  here  to  found 
the  New  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  Regeneration, 
the  thousand  years  Kingdom,  according  unto 
His  Holy  pleasure  !  " 

Life  in  Miinster  was  relieved  by  travesties  of 
the  dispossessed  cultus.  A  waggon  would  be 
drawn  up  on  the  market-place,  dragged  by  six 
Anabaptists  in  the  garb  of  the  religious  orders, 
the  driver  representing  the  Prince-Bishop  in  his 
robes,  whilst  a  man  in  priestly  garments  sat  in 
the  waggon  reading  a  parody  of  the  Mass. 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 5  9 

The  waggon  was  drawn  through  the  streets 
surrounded  by  an  excited  crowd  shouting,  "  Down 
with  the  Catholics !  Down  with  the  Evangelicals ! 
Death  to  the  heathen  and  to  the  godless ! " 
The  foreign  elements  produced  by  the  recent 
immigration  now  considerably  outnumbered  the 
genuine  burgher  population,  which  was  being 
daily  diminished  by  withdrawals.  The  heads 
of  the  town  government,  finding  themselves 
rapidly  becoming  powerless,  fled.  Tylbeck,  as 
we  have  seen,  went  formally  over  to  the  Ana- 
baptists, and  his  colleague,  a  patrician,  and  a 
chief  pillar  of  the  party  of  order  escaped  to  a 
small  town  not  far  distant.  The  town  Syndicus, 
Van  der  Wieck,  left  the  city,  with  the  intention 
of  seeking  an  asylum  in  Bremen.  He  was,  how- 
ever, treacherously  captured  by  men  in  the 
Bishop's  service,  a  few  miles  from  Minister,  and 
after  being  taken  from  one  prison  to  another, 
was  beheaded  without  trial,  by  the  Bishop's 
order.  Van  der  Wieck  was  the  leader  of  the 
orthodox  Protestant  party  in  Miinster. 

The  town  being  now  practically  without  a 
government,  it  was  decided  by  the  Anabaptist 
leaders  to  summon  the  inhabitants  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  Council  and  officers.  This  was 


160  XISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

done,  with  the  result,  as  was  obvious  beforehand, 
that  a  Council  and  Government,  composed 
entirely  of  Brethren,  was  got  together.  The 
head  Burgermeister,  Tylbeck,  notwithstanding  his 
defection  from  the  Party  of  Order,  was  not 
only  not  re-elected,  but,  which  seemed  rather 
hard,  was  for  the  time  being  thrown  into  prison. 
The  leaders  may  conceivably  have  regarded 
him  as  a  time-server,  who  trimmed  his  sails  to 
the  wind  and  whom  it  would  not  be  safe  to 
trust.  In  his  stead,  Bernhardt  Knipperdollinck 
and  his  friend  the  master-tailor  Kibbenbroick 
were  chosen  respectively  to  the  posts  of  first 
and  second  Biirgermeister.  Ever  since  the  unsta- 
ble "Peace"  of  February  loth  the  town  had 
been  virtually  in  the  control  of  the  Anabaptist 
leaders  After  the  election  of  the  new  Council 
on  February  28th,  it  came  formally  into  their 
hands  and  was  definitely  organized  as  an  Ana- 
baptist community.  The  reign  of  the  Saints 
had  begun;  Anabaptism  had  reached  its  zenith 
as  a  political  power. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  history  of  the  events 
that  followed,  we  will  now  pause  to  consider 
the  whole  movement,  in  general  survey,  up  to 
this  turning-point  in  its  fortunes.  As  we  have 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 6 1 

seen  it  was  the  expression  of  tendencies  which 
had  been  sporadic  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
later  Middle  Ages,  and  which  asserted  them- 
selves with  renewed  emphasis  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Reformation.  These  tendencies  were: 
(i)  the  thoroughgoing  carrying-out  of  the  notion 
of  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  of 
religion  as  opposed  to  authority ;  (2)  the  demo- 
cratic idea  of  the  equality  of  all  Christians,  the 
duty  of  the  Brethren,  the  true  followers  of  Christ, 
to  possess  as  though  they  possessed  nothing, 
in  a  word  to  hold  all  things  in  common ;  (3)  the 
belief  in  the  approaching  advent  of  the  end  of 
the  world,  or  of  the  millennium.  All  these 
tendencies  were  absorbed  after  1525  into  the 
new  movement  under  its  distinctive  sign,  rebap- 
tism,  or  adult  baptism.  The  latter  served  as  a 
symbol  for  the  paramountcy  of  private  judgment 
in  matters  of  religion  as  opposed  to  that  of  a 
hierarchical  Church-organisation  into  which  an 
infant  was  received  without  any  act  of  will  on 
its  part.  It  was  also  a  convenient  token  by 
which  the  elect,  the  Saints,  definitely  proclaimed 
themselves  as  separate  from  the  world.  The 
doctrine  of  non-resistance,  which  was  so  prom- 
inent in  the  Anabaptism  communities  up  till  the 


ii 


1 62  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

time  that  Jan  Matthys  obtained  control  of  the 
movement  in  Holland  and  north-west  Germany, 
— for  before  his  time  even  Melchior  Hoffmann  and 
his  followers  were  content,  like  the  rest,  with 
non-resistance  till  the  great  day  had  arrived— 
was  a  natural  result  of  the  literal  interpretation 
of  many  passages  in  the  New  Testament.  And 
this  leads  us  once  more  to  advert  to  an  impor- 
tant feature  of  the  movement,  its  strange  at- 
mosphere of  Bible-reading  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  literature.  This  was  also  characteristic  of 
earlier  analagous  movements,  but  not  to  the  same 
extent  as  with  the  Anabaptists.  During  the 
Middle  Ages  proper,  the  knowledge  of  letters 
and  the  means  of  reading  were  scanty,  while 
for  the  most  part  portions  only  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  were  accessible  at  all  in  the  vulgar 
tongue.  There  had  been  more  than  one  trans- 
lation into  German  of  books  of  the  Bible  before 
Luther's,  but  it  was  Luther's  translation  that 
first  made  the  Bible  as  a  whole  a  household 
book  and  a  personal  possession  of  the  German- 
speaking  peoples.  Amongst  the  skilled  artisans, 
journeymen  and  better  situated  peasants  of  the 
early  sixteenth  century,  there  were  not  a  few  who 
could  read  sufficiently  to  make  out  the  text  of 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      163 

the  new  German  Bible,  whilst  those  who  could 
not  read  would  form  a  circle  round  those  who 
could,  and  the  latter,  from  their  coign  of  intel- 
lectual vantage,  would  not  merely  read,  but 
would  often  expound,  the  text  in  their  own 
fashion  to  their  hearers.  These  informal  Bible- 
readings  became  the  chief  religious  function 
among  the  Anabaptists.  This  naive  continuous 
and  discursive  study  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments had  its  natural  outcome  in  a  population 
lacking  almost  all  that  constitutes  what  we  now 
call  education.  Men  and  women  read  and  re- 
read, heard  and  re-heard,  pondered  and  re- 
pondered  the  text  hallowed  by  its  supposed  divine 
origin,  until  they  could  think  of  nothing  else. 
Soon  they  came  to  live  in  a  dream-world,  to 
re-live  in  their  daily  life  and  in  the  events  of 
their  own  time,  the  narratives  and  prophetic 
visions  of  their  one  book.  Destitute  of  all 
knowledge  of  history,  save  perhaps  here  and 
there  an  isolated  fragment,  there  was  no  break 
for  them  between  the  biblical  story  and  their 
own  age.  They,  the  Anabaptists,  were  the 
chosen  people,  who  had  come  out  of  Babylon, 
renouncing  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil, 
prepared  to  meet  the  Messiah  when  he  should 


1 64  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

descend  from  the  clouds  upon  the  earth  to 
establish  the  millennial  kingdom  of  which  the 
Apocalypse  spoke.  It  is  difficult  for  us  nowa- 
days to  throw  ourselves  back  into  the  state  of 
mind  of  these  guileless  people,  whose  beliefs 
were  no  mere  pious  opinions  kept  in  a  com- 
partment by  themselves,  and  not  affecting  their 
everyday  thought  and  action.  They  were  to 
them  certainties  as  real  and  living  as  the  world 

o 

surrounding  them,  and  hence  of  quite  as  much 
practical  moment  as  the  affairs  of  their  trade  or 
as  a  journey  about  to  be  undertaken. 

We  have  further  to  bear  in  mind,  not  merely 
the  ideas  themselves,  but  the  mediaeval  back- 
ground of  thought  that  constituted  their  setting. 
No  breath  of  criticism  or  disbelief  in  the  modern 
sense  touched  them.  The  whole  horizon  of 
these  simple  folk  was  bounded  by  a  supernatural 
view  of  the  universe,  now  a  more  especially 
biblical  supernaturalism,  as  it  had  before  been 
the  supernaturalism  of  the  theory  of  the  world 
and  of  man  of  popular  mediaeval  Catholicism. 
The  idea  of  inspiration  was  ever  present  to  them. 
The  only  conflict  that  might  possibly  arise  in 
this  connection  was  the  conflict  between  the 
inspiration  enshrined  in  the  letter  of  Holy  Writ 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      165 

and  the  inspiration  that  the  inner  light  directly 
afforded  to  the  soul  of  the  individual  believer. 
The  Anabaptists,  in  perfectly  consistent  accor- 
dance with  their  Biblical-Christian  theory  of 
things,  would  admit  no  break  in  the  conditions 
of  revelation  between  biblical  and  primitive 
Christian  times  and  the  year  of  grace  in  which 
they  then  found  themselves.  Prophets  were  as 
possible  in  the  third  and  fourth  decade  of  the 
sixteenth  century  as  they  had  been  in  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  or  a  thousand  years 
before  that  era.  Special  revelation  vouchsafed 
to  the  soul  of  the  individual  believer  was  as 
conceivable  then  as  ever  it  had  been,  nay,  was 
even  likely  to  happen  more  frequently  then  than 
in  years  gone  by,  for  did  not  all  things  point 
to  the  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  prophecies  of 
Holy  Writ,  to  the  day  being  at  hand  when  the 
Messiah  should  come  with  his  legions  of  angels, 
preceded  by  Elias,  to  restore  all  things,  to  over- 
throw the  kingdoms  of  this  world  with  their 
principalities  and  powers,  and  establish  the  Holy 
City,  the  New  Jerusalem,  as  the  Metropolis  of 
the  world,  the  delight  of  all  nations?  Was  it 
not  written  that  the  weak  and  the  lowly  should 
inherit  the  earth?  and  was  it  not  now  the  poor 


1 66  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

handicraftsman  and  peasant  who  accepted  the 
true  word  ?  Was  it  not  out  of  the  ranks  of  the 
poor  and  the  lowly  that  the  new  prophets  were 
being  called,  to  whom  were  vouchsafed  the  latest 
revelations  of  the  will  of  the  Father? 

That,  in  a  mental  and  moral  atmosphere 
dominated  by  these  beliefs,  hysteria  and  actual 
insanity  should  be  rife  was  only  to  be  expected : 
the  mind  of  whole  sections  of  the  population 
over  a  vast  area  of  territory  was  hypnotized, 
and  it  needed  not  much  that  individuals,  especi- 
ally women,  from  out  the  masses  held  under 
control  by  the  dominant  beliefs,  should  completely 
lose  their  mental  balance  and  become  raving 
maniacs.  Of  course  the  stress  of  the  economical 
circumstances  consequent  on  that  breaking  up 
of  the  mediaeval  conditions  of  life,  to  which  we 
have  so  often  referred  throughout  these  studies 
of  the  social  side  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany, 
was  largely  responsible  for  the  sudden  ascendency 
obtained  by  these  views  over  the  poorer  popula- 
tions of  such  extended  territories,  an  ascendency 
which  resulted  in  the  focussing  of  the  movement 
in  one  town,  and  in  the  remarkable  events  of 
the  years  1534  and  1535  that  followed.  The 
political  and  economic  aspirations  of  the  demo- 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  MUNSTER.      167 

cracies,  especially  of  the  German  cities,  called 
forth  by  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  readily 
and  naturally  clothed  themselves  in  a  religious 
or  theological  garb,  whilst  the  religious  aspira- 
tions themselves  seemed  to  demand  political 
and  economic  revolution  as  the  conditions  of 
their  fulfilment. 

The  effect  of  the  arrest  of  Melchior  Hoffmann 
in  Strasburg  the  previous  year  was  considerable 
in  these  northern  territories  of  the  Empire,  not 
merely  among  his  actual  disciples,  numerous  as 
they  were,  but  amongst  the  susceptible  and 
sympathetic  population  generally.  The  Brethren, 
who  in  pursuit  of  their  handicraft  had  wandered 
north,  related  in  their  southern  dialect  with 
what  confidence  Hoffmann,  on  being  thrown 
into  prison,  had  thanked  God  that  the  hour  had 
struck,  had  raised  his  hand  to  Heaven,  and 
sworn  by  the  living  God  that  he  would  neither 
drink  water  nor  eat  bread  till  the  time  had 
arrived  when  he  could  with  outstretched  finger 
point  to  him  who  had  sent  him.  They  brought 
with  them  tracts  that  Hoffmann  had  written 
during  his  confinement  and  had  succeeded  in 
smuggling  out  of  the  prison  to  his  adherents. 
Hoffmann  had  predicted  that  he  would  be  seized 


1 68  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  imprisoned  by  the  godless.  His  prophecy 
had  come  true.  He  had  also  predicted  that  he 
should  be  speedily  released  and  be  caught  up 
in  the  clouds  to  join  the  Lord  and  return  with 
him  in  glory  to  judge  the  earth.  uOh,  Saints 
of  God,"  he  wrote  from  his  prison,  "  raise  your 
heads,  your  hearts,  your  eyes,  your  ears.  Your 
salvation  is  before  the  door.  All  the  plagues 
have  been  fulfilled  save  that  of  the  seventh 
angel  of  vengeance." 

Throughout  the  winter  of  1533 — 1534  the 
tracts  of  Hoffmann  were  to  be  found  in  the 
hands  of  the  popular  party  in  Mlinster,  and 
were  earnestly  studied.  But  the  doctrines  of 
Hoffmann  contained,  as  compared  with  those 
of  Matthys,  a  considerable  non-resistance  element. 
The  notion  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  elect  to 
bear  the  evils  God  inflicted  upon  them,  and  to 
resist  not  those  in  authority,  but  to  await  the 
day  of  vengeance  that  would  come  in  its  good 
time,  was  still  the  predominant  doctrine  among 
the  Melchiorites  of  Westphalia  until  the  coming 
of  the  apostles  of  Jan  Matthys  early  in  January, 
1534.  Essentially  the  Anabaptism  of  Holland, 
Friesland  and  Westphalia  was  identical  with  the 
Anabaptism  of  Moravia,  the  Tyrol,  and  southern 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 6  9 

Germany,  as  that  was  with  the  original  doctrine 
as  held  and  preached  by  the  little  pioneer  com- 
munity of  Zurich  constituted  by  Konrad  Grebel 
and  his  friends.  But  there  was  one  theory 
prevalent  in  the  north-west,  chiefly  owing  to  the 
teaching  of  the  two  Melchiors,  Hoffmann  and 
Rink,  (if  we  are  to  regard  them  as  two  persons) 
which  was  viewed  with  disfavour  by  most  of 
the  earlier  communities  of  southern  and  south- 
eastern Germany,  and  this  was  the  theory  of 
the  imminency  of  the  second  advent  of  Christ 
and  of  the  millennium.  This  innovation,  for  the 
most  part  peculiar  to  the  Anabaptists  of  the 
north-west,  was  not  only  not  held  by  their  brethren 
of  the  south,  but  was  even  on  occasion  strongly 
combated  by  them.  And,  as  it  turned  out, 
this  apocalyptic  point  of  view,  notwithstanding 
the  apparent  identity  of  doctrines  otherwise,  was 
destined  to  form  a  crucial  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  earlier  Anabaptism  of  the  third 
decade  of  the  century,  which  had  its  principal 
seat  in  south-eastern  Germany,  Austria  and 
Switzerland,  and  the  later  Anabaptism  of  the 
fourth  decade,  which  prevailed  mainly  in  Holland, 
Friesland,  Westphalia,  and  the  north-west  gener- 
ally. From  the  belief  and  expectation  of  the 


1 70  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

immediate  advent  of  a  day  of  vengeance,  out 
of  which  would  arise  the  reign  of  the  saints  on 
earth,  it  was  but  a  step  to  the  conviction  that 
Providence  would  work  his  purposes  through  the 
human  agency  of  the  elect  themselves.  Mel- 
chior  Hoffmann  had  prophesied  his  own  imprison- 
ment, his  liberation,  and  the  end  of  the  age 
for  the  year  1533.  The  first  of  these  prophecies 
proved  correct,  but  the  others  disappointed  the 
expectation  of  the  many  thousands  of  Melchior's 
followers.  As  the  year  1533  became  autumn, 
and  as  autumn  faded  into  winter,  and  yet  there 
was  no  sign  of  the  anxiously  awaited  catastrophe, 
doubts  must  have  arisen  in  the  minds  of  many 
as  to  the  infallibility  of  Hoffmann's  interpreta- 
tions of  the  signs  of  the  times. 

Doubts  transformed  themselves  in  the  active 
and  energetic  mind  of  the  master-baker  of  Haar- 
lem into  the  conviction  that  the  Saints  themselves 
must  take  to  the  sword,  that  the  time  of  endur- 
ing, forbearing,  meekness  and  suffering  was 
past,  and  that  it  was  his  mission  to  shew  them 
the  new  way  of  vengeance  and  the  destruction 
of  the  godless,  by  which  they  should  accomplish 
the  will  of  God,  work  out  their  own  salvation, 
and  inaugurate  the  millennial  reign.  The  sue- 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  MUNSTER.      1 7 1 

cess  so  rapid  and  so  extraordinary  of  his  followers, 
the  apostles  he  sent  forth  into  all  the  neighbour- 
ing lands,  confirmed  him  in  the  belief  in  his 
divine  mission.  The  wonderful  reports  brought 
to  him  of  the  events  in  Miinster,  of  the  victories 
gained  by  the  elect  over  worldly  authorities,  of 
the  zeal  that  inspired  the  whole  population,  at 
last  left  no  doubt  in  his  mind  that  Miinster  was 
the  chosen  city.  This  conviction  once  forced 
upon  him,  his  course  became  clear.  He,  the 
prophet,  specially  chosen  of  God  to  prepare  the 
way  for  Him,  must  depart  without  delay  to  this 
new  city  of  God,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  work 
of  vengeance  and  regeneration. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   REIGN    OF   THE   SAINTS. 

THE  goal  was  now  obtained  by  the  election 
of  the  23rd  of  February,  and  the  reconstitution  of 
the  government  of  Minister.  The  Anabaptists 
obtained  a  supreme  political  power.  The  Holy 
City,  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  Zion  of  the  prophets 
was  definitely  founded.  The  old  burghers  of 
Miinster  were  become  an  insignificant  and  power- 
less minority.  As  to  the  character  of  the  new 
inhabitants  of  Miinster,  if  we  are  to  believe  an 
u  instruction  "  drawn  up  by  the  district  assembly 
of  Koln  in  October,  1534,  it  consisted  largely 
of  very  questionable  elements;  uall  fugitive, 
banished  and  evil-doing  citizens  and  inhabitants 
from  among  the  towns  of  the  bishopric  of  Miin- 
ster came  thither  together,"  are  the  words  used. 
And  again,  in  an  official  report  to  Bishop  Franz 
von  Waldeck,  we  read  "so  soon  as  the  town 
had  come  into  their  power  did  they  utterly 
overthrow  all  divine  Christian  order  and  justice, 
all  spiritual  and  temporal  rule  and  policy,  and 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  173 

did  set  up  a  bestial  life."  The  histories  that 
have  been  written  subsequently  of  the  great 
Anabaptist  movement  in  Miinster,  from  that  of  the 
contemporary  Kerssenbroick  downwards,  have 
all  been  couched  in  this  tone.  The  leaders  of 
the  Anabaptists  were  cunning  and  designing 
rogues,  while  their  followers  were  the  offscouring 
of  the  earth,  composed  of  some  fools  and  of 
more  knaves,  whose  end  was  plunder,  and  whose 
means  were  anarchy.  This,  of  course,  is  only 
one  more  instance  of  how  the  dominant  class 
of  every  age  writes  history  in  its  own  interest, 
and  of  how  it  has  hitherto  succeeded  not  only 
in  imposing  its  view  on  the  average  intelligence 
of  its  own  time,  but  in  handing  it  down  to 
the  second-hand  historians  of  subsequent  ages. 
These,  as  a  rule,  themselves  the  pensioners 
of  the  dominant  classes  of  their  own  time, 
slavishly  copy  their  predecessors  in  the  art  of 
slandering  the  enemies  of  an  older  ruling  class. 
Now,  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century, 
for  the  first  time  in  history  has  the  opposition  to 
the  interests  of  the  propertied  classes  acquired  suf- 
ficient strength  and  consistency  to  make  headway 
against  the  distortion  of  history  designed  to 
pander  to  their  passions.  It  would,  of  course, 


174  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

be  absurd  to  deny  that  amongst  those  who 
flocked  from  all  sides  to  Miinster  in  the  name 
of  the  new  doctrine,  there  may  have  been  some 
individuals  who  might  possibly  answer  to  the 
descriptions  officially  given.  In  all  movements 
whose  seed-ground  is  a  decaying  economic  state 
of  things,  are  to  be  found  the  flotsom  and  jetsom 
cast  forth  by  decay.  In  the  early  sixteenth 
century,  we  may  be  quite  sure,  the  revolt  against 
moribund  feudalism  was  not  ideal  in  all  its 
individual  elements.  It  would  be  manifestly  fool- 
ish to  expect  such  to  be  the  case  with  sections 
of  a  population  more  or  less  suddenly  cast  adrift 
from  their  social  and  economic  moorings.  But 
at  the  same  time  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  any  person  who  has  seriously  studied 
the  history  of  social  movements,  that  the  bulk 
of  those  who  thronged  the  city  of  Miinster  in 
the  year  1 534,  were  infinitely  honester  and  nobler 
characters  at  bottom  than  the  unscrupulous  ruffi- 
ans of  the  moribund  feudalism  with  whom  they 
were  at  war. 

At  the  time  at  which  we  have  now  arrived, 
as  already  stated,  the  immigrants,  of  whom  an 
important  portion  hailed  from  Holland,  consider- 
ably outnumbered  the  original  inhabitants  who 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  175 

remained  within  the  walls.  The  question  of 
language  offered  comparatively  little  difficulty, 
as  the  local  Platt  or  Low  German  dialect  of 
Westphalia  closely  approached  that  other  Low- 
German  dialect  of  Holland  which,  owing  to  its 
having  become  enshrined  in  a  literature  of  its 
own,  and  to  its  being  the  dialect  of  a  people 
through  long  centuries  politically  separated  from 
the  rest  of  Germany,  we  are  accustomed  to  call 
the  Dutch  language — and  so  the  newcomers  and 
the  Miinsterites  were  mutually  intelligible  from 
the  first.  A  few  weeks  doubtless  sufficed  to  make 
the  strangers  proficients  in  the  tongue  of  the 
native-born  inhabitants. 

Already  before  the  new  elections  the  Catholic 
churches  and  religious  houses  had  been  stormed 
and  the  contents  rifled  by  crowds  of  zealots. 
Even  the  Cathedral  was  not  spared.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  24th  of  February  it  was  entered  and 
sacked,  many  remarkable  specimens  of  mediaeval 
art  being  destroyed.  The  notion  of  making  a 
complete  break  with  the  past  was  carried  to 
the  point  not  merely  of  consigning  to  the  flames 
all  official  documents  and  charters  dealing  with 
the  feudal  relations  of  the  town,  which  would 
have  been  at  least  intelligible,  but  of  handing 


176  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

over  to  the  same  fate  the  priceless  collection 
of  mediaeval  and  Renaissance  manuscripts  and 
printed  books  which  had  been  formed  by  the 
patrician  Rudolph  von  Langen.  The  systematic 
destruction  of  all  manuscript  or  printed  relics  of 
the  past  that  could  be  laid  hands  on,  seems  to 
have  been  carried  out  by  the  direct  order  of 
the  new  authorities,  and  the  work  lasted  from 
the  1 5th  to  the  23rd  of  March.  The  wealthy 
church  of  St.  Mauritz,  outside  the  walls,  where 
Bernhardt  Rothmann  had  originally  been  called 
to  the  pulpit,  was  also  burned  to  the  ground, 
although  in  this  case  military  reasons  were 
assigned  as  an  excuse.  These  measures,  not 
unnaturally,  excited  the  indignation  of  the  Evan- 
gelical and  Catholic  burghers  who  had  remained, 
an  indignation  which  did  not  fail  to  show  itself, 
in  some  cases  in  active  opposition.  The  opposi- 
tion of  the  older  inhabitants  to  the  work  of 
destruction  which  the  Anabaptists  had  resolved 
to  carry  through  to  the  bitter  end,  led  to  the 
decision  to  slay  or  drive  out  the  godless  and 
the  heathen,  by  which  was  understood  all  who 
refused  to  receive  baptism  at  the  hands  of  the 
brethren  appointed  to  administer  it.  The  decree 
enjoining  this  was  issued  for  Friday,  February 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  177 

27th.  It  was  the  second  Friday  in  Lent.  On 
this  day  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  con- 
tingents of  Anabaptists  paraded  the  streets, 
shouting :  u  Away  with  the  godless !  God  will 
straightway  awake  and  will  punish  thee ! "  These 
contingents,  which  were  armed  with  muskets,  pikes, 
and  halberds,  proceeded  themselves  to  accomplish 
the  work  of  God  in  driving  out  the  unbaptised 
men,  women  and  children.  It  was  a  bitter  cold 
winter's  day,  a  cutting  wind  accompanied  by 
sleet  swept  through  the  narrow  streets  and 
byways  of  the  old  mediaeval  city.  Says  Meister 
Heinrich  Gresbeck :  u  One  ought  not  on  that  same 
Friday  to  have  hunted  a  dog  from  the  town, 
so  bitter  was  the  weather  on  that  same  Friday."  l 
A  great  cry  was  heard,  according  to  Gresbeck, 
from  the  women  and  children,  as  they  were 
driven  out  of  the  gates.  (On  the  other  hand, 
Gresbeck  does  not  mention  that  the  Bishop  at 
this  juncture  was  murdering  every  Anabaptist 
he  could  lay  his  hands  on.)  The  one  condition 
of  being  allowed  to  remain  was  the  consent  to 
undergo  the  cardinal  Anabaptist  rite  of  rebaptism. 
Those  who  pledged  themselves  to  be  rebaptized 
were  immediately  marched  up  to  the  market- 

1  Geschichtsqudlen  des  Bisthums  Miinster,  vol.  2,  page  19. 

12 


178  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

place.  On  this  day  alone  three  hundred  were 
baptized,  but  the  baptizings  lasted  in  all  three 
days.  After  the  ceremony  was  over,  the  rebap- 
tized  were  required  to  repair  to  the  house  of 
one  or  other  of  the  Biirgermeisters,  Knipper- 
dollinck  and  Kibbenbroick,  and  sign  their  name 
in  a  register  which  was  kept  there  for  the 
benefit  of  the  new  converts.  Three  or  more 
Anabaptist  bishops  or  shepherds  remained  in 
attendance  all  day  long  in  the  market-place  to 
perform  the  ceremony,  now  required  to  be 
undergone  by  every  inhabitant  of  Mlinster. 
The  Anabaptist  preachers,  each  of  whom  had 
a  large  vessel  containing  water  standing  before 
him,  would  first  of  all  admonish  the  candidate 
for  baptism  to  abandon  his  sins  and  follow 
goodness,  after  which  he  had  to  kneel  down, 
when,  bending  low  his  head,  he  would  receive 
from  the  hand  of  the  administering  u Bishop" 
three  sconces  full  of  water  poured  over  it,  one 
for  the  Father,  one  for  the  Son,  and  one  for 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Those  who  were  unable 
through  age,  infirmity,  or  sickness,  to  repair 
to  the  market-place  were  allowed,  a  represent- 
ation to  this  effect  being  made,  to  receive  the 
rite  in  their  own  homes,  "  but,"  observes  Gres- 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  179 

beck,  u  few  of  those  who  were  thus  baptized 
against  their  will  were  fully  aware  what  they 
were  to  suffer,  otherwise  not  so  much  as  a 
child  would  have  remained  in  the  city."  On 
the  other  hand,  those  who  had  been  driven  out 
as  little  dreamt  that  their  expulsion  meant  a  long 
exile  from  hearth  and  home.  They  had  hoped 
that  possibly  in  a  few  hours,  or  in  any  case,  in 
a  few  days,  they  would  have  been  permitted  to 
quietly  re-enter  the  city  at  another  gate. 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  Knipperdollinck  and 
Kibbenbroick  in  conjunction  with  their  Council 
organised  a  watch,  having  its  centre  in  the  market- 
place, with  a  banner  and  a  watch-fire.  The 
circuit  of  the  walls  was  also  carefully  patrolled, 
Knipperdollinck  and  Kibbenbroick  and  the 
"prophets"  between  them  taking  it  in  turn  to 
inspect  matters.  One  night,  as  the  two  Burger- 
meisters  and  Jan  of  Leyden  were  performing 
their  duty,  accompanied  by  two  of  the  guards, 
they  saw  a  great  fire  suspended  in  the  air  before 
the  town,  together  with  two  gigantic  swords. 
This  fire,  which  the  exalted  imagination  of  the  on- 
lookers doubtless  exaggerated  and  supplied  with 
the  two  swords,  probably  had  as  its  basis — as 
Meister  Heinrich  Gresbeck  rationalistically  sug- 


i8o  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

gests — in  a  watch-fire  made  by  the  free-lances 
of  the  Bishop,  who  was  beginning  now  to  seri- 
ously organise  the  siege  of  the  town.  It  was, 
however,  immediately  hailed  by  the  Anabaptist 
chiefs  as  a  sign  from  Heaven  that  God  would 
watch  over  the  town.  Visions  became  now  the 
order  of  the  day  and  night.  The  faithful  were 
informed  that  the  appearance  of  three  cities  had 
been  seen  hovering  over  the  town.  One  was 
Miinster  itself,  another  Strasburg,  and  a  third 
Deventer.  They  were,  it  was  said,  the  three 
cities  chosen  by  God  as  the  rallying  places  of 
the  faithful,  of  which  Miinster  was  the  chief. 
This  survival  of  the  original  belief  held  by  the 
Hoffmannites,  that  Strasburg  was  to  be  the  Zion 
of  the  new  movement,  is  noteworthy. 

The  Government  of  Miinster  now  consisted, 
officially,  of  the  two  Biirgermeisters  and  the  newly 
elected  Anabaptist  Rath,  assisted,  unofficially, 
but  with  so  much  the  more  real  power,  by 
Jan  Matthys  and  his  disciple  Jan  Bockelson  of 
Leyden.  One  day,  soon  after  the  occurrences 
just  referred  to,  Matthys  and  Bockelson  called 
all  the  people  together  to  the  Cathedral.  They 
then  ordered  those  who  had  been  baptised  on 
the  Friday  to  separate  themselves  from  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  181 

rest.  These,  like  the  remainder  of  the  people, 
had  come  armed.  They  were,  however,  ordered 
to  lay  down  their  muskets  and  remove  their 
armour,  after  which  they  had  to  lie  on  their 
faces  and  pray  the  Father  that  they  might  stay 
in  the  town  and  be  accepted  into  grace.  uFor," 
said  the  preachers,  u  God  would  have  nothing 
unclean  in  the  city  of  Miinster.  He  would  have 
a  holy  people  to  praise  his  name."  The  multitude 
of  the  newly-baptised  lay  prostrate  in  this  way 
for  nearly  an  hour,  "fearing,"  says  Gresbeck, 
"  lest  they  should  be  fallen  upon  and  slaughtered 
by  the  Anabaptists."  At  last  they  were  allowed 
to  rise,  and  marched  in  procession  to  the  church 
of  St.  Lamberti,  where  a  similar  ceremony  was 
repeated,  but  genuine  religious  excitement  seems 
to  have  seized  these  people  also,  for  Gresbeck 
relates  ^Gcschichtsquellen"  vol.  2,  p.  24)  that 
men  and  women  embraced  one  another  and 
danced,  while  invoking  the  Father.  Women  and 
children,  he  also  states,  umade  a  horrible  din" 
(gresslik  Gehiit)  in  the  church.  Finally  Jan  of 
Leyden  entered  the  church,  and  proceeding  to 
the  high  altar,  proclaimed:  "Dear  Brethren, 
it  is  God's  will  that  I  make  known  unto  you, 
that  ye  have  received  Grace  from  God,  and 


1 82  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

shall  remain  with  us  and  be  his  Holy  people." 
Tokens  were  now  struck  and  distributed  in 
St.  Lamberti,  bearing  the  inscription  uThe 
Word  was  made  Flesh."  A  few  weeks  later 
others  were  distributed  with  the  words  "The 
Word  was  Flesh."  These  tokens  were  worn 
hung  round  the  neck.  Woe  betide  anyone 
now  who  doubted  the  authority  of  the  prophets, 
or  attempted  to  make  a  jest  of  their  mission. 
One  of  the  town  guards,  a  smith  named  Riischer, 
while  performing  his  watch  was  rash  enough 
one  night  to  observe — uThe  prophets  will  pro- 
phesy till  they've  broken  our  necks.  One  might 
think  they  had  a  devil  in  their  bodies."  This 
was  reported  to  the  great  men  and  their 
preachers,  who  thereupon  had  the  luckless  soldier 
seized  and  thrown  into  one  of  the  towers. 
The  next  day  a  general  assembly  of  the  men 
was  called  to  adjudicate  on  the  matter.  On 
the  prisoner  being  brought  and  placed  in  the 
midst  of  the  Assembly,  the  Prophets  and  the 
Preachers  charged  him  with  having  spoken 
disrespectfully  of  God,  his  Prophets  and  his 
Apostles,  repeating  the  words  he  had  said. 
On  his  confessing  the  truth  of  the  allegation,  the 
Prophets  and  the  Apostles  or  Preachers  declared 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  183 

him  worthy  of  death,  since  he  had  incurred  God's 
wrath.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  Miinster 
burghers,  including  the  second  Bin-germeister  Kib- 
benbroick,  Jan  of  Leyden  seized  a  halberd  and 
stabbed  him  twice  in  the  body.  He  was  sub- 
sequently brought  to  the  Cathedral,  where  he 
threw  himself  upon  the  ground,  in  the  sight  of  the 
people,  begging  for  mercy.  Matthys  then  took 
up  a  musket,  as  though  he  would  shoot  the  delin- 
quent, but,  according  to  Gresbeck,  the  firearm 
refused  to  go  off.  The  probability  is  that  the 
whole  thing  was  intended  by  the  leaders  simply 
as  a  piece  of  play-acting  to  intimidate  the  disaf- 
fected. Gresbeck  alleges  that  Matthys  sub- 
sequently shot  him  through  the  body,  but  with- 
out killing  him.  This,  however,  is  incredible, 
seeing  he  relates  the  man  walked  home  after- 
wards. A  day  or  two  later  the  Prophets  and  the 
Preachers  came  to  the  house  and  informed  him 
that  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  he  should  not 
die,  but  recover ;  as  fate  would  have  it,  however, 
he  did  die  within  a  week.  A  free-lance  who 
had  found  his  way  into  the  town,  and  had 
been  heard  to  threaten  to  shoot  one  of  the 
preachers,  was  executed.  This  last  execution 
will  hardly  excite  surprise  as  the  free-lance 


1 84  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

obviously  laid  himself  open  to  being  dealt  with 
severely.  As  regards  the  case  of  the  too  free- 
spoken  citizen  of  the  town-guard,  although  he 
undoubtedly,  if  Gresbeck's  report  is  to  be  cre- 
dited, received  injuries  from  which  he  died,  it 
would  not  seem  that  the  intention  was  to  kill 
him,  and  even  here  allowance  must  be  made 
for  the  condition  of  a  besieged  town,  and  the 
feelings  of  men  who  daily  lived  in  the  fear  of 
traitors.  In  fact,  the  ruthless  bias  of  the  verdict 
of  the  conventional  historian,  full  as  he  is  of 
dominant  class-prejudices  against  all  that  threat- 
ens dominant  class-interest,  is  crucially  exhibited 
in  his  judgment  of  this  affair  of  Miinster,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Paris  of  the  Revolution,  the 
Paris  of  the  Commune,  and  in  other  similar 
instances.  The  aforesaid  historian  assumes  the 
right  to  judge  men  under  conditions  of  great 
popular  excitement  and  imminent  danger  from 
without,  by  the  same  standard  that  he  would 
have  a  right  to  apply  to  them  under  normal 
conditions.  He  never  for  a  moment  dreams  of 
dealing  out  the  same  measure  to  highly  respect- 
able governments  representing  class-interests 
under  analogous  circumstances.  Miinster  in  1534, 
however  different  otherwise,  was,  in  this  respect, 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  185 

like  the  Paris  of  1792.  It  was  a  community 
imminently  threatened  by  an  external  foe,  for 
which  the  toleration  of  traitors  or  spies  in  its 
midst  meant  ruin  and  destruction.  Under  these 
circumstances,  naturally,  deeds  are  done  and 
justifiably  done,  which  under  normal  circum- 
stances would  be  rightly  condemned.  The  critic 
and  historian  who  so  unsparingly  condemns  the 
Anabaptists  of  Miinster  for  certain  executions  or 
other  events  that  took  place  during  the  siege 
of  the  town,  or  the  sans-culottes  of  Paris  for 
the  September  massacres,  when  the  arrival 
before  the  city  of  the  armies  of  the  European 
coalition  seemed  to  be  only  a  matter  of  days, 
would  never  think  of  treating  similar  acts — even 
though  perpetrated  on  a  much  greater  scale, — 
when  an  orthodox  government  is  in  question, 
by  similar  severe  canons,  but  coolly  waves  them 
aside  with  remarks  about  the  unhappy  neces- 
sities of  the  situation,  or  even  with  stale  phrases 
such  as  that  "war  is  war,"  and  the  like.  Cir- 
cumstances, though  they  may  not  excuse  every- 
thing, do  undoubtedly  excuse  a  great  deal,  and 
those  who  have  exceeded  the  limits  of  what 
may  be  excused  or  condoned  by  circumstances, 
have  been  assuredly  far  more  often  represent- 


1 86  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

atives  of  law  and  order,  that  is,  of  the  privileged 
classes,  than  the  depositaries  of  the  power  of 
popular  insurrection. 

After  the  newly-baptized  had  been  duly 
received  by  Jan  of  Leyden  in  the  cathedral, 
and  had  had  the  hands  of  two  of  the  foremost 
preachers  laid  on  their  heads  with  a  blessing, 
the  Anabaptists  believed  themselves  compar- 
atively secure  against  internal  traitors.  The 
next  procedure  was  to  endeavour  to  organise 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  it  was  conceived  by 
the  Anabaptists  generally,  and  especially  as 
formulated  by  Matthys.  This  involved  on  the 
economic  side  Communism,  not  in  the  means 
of  production,  as  modern  Socialism  demands, 
but  in  the  objects  of  consumption,  as  mediaeval 
Christian  Communism  demanded.  Accordingly, 
as  Gresbeck  informs  us,  the  Prophets,  Preachers 
and  the  whole  Rath  took  counsel  together  how 
they  might  make  all  goods  common.  Nevertheless 
no  definite  attempt  seems  to  have  been  made  to 
carry  out  a  scheme  of  universal  Communism. 
This  was  mainly  limited  to  the  precious  metals. 
It  was  decided  that  all  should  bring  their  money, 
silver  and  gold  to  a  certain  place.  Thereupon 
the  prophets  and  the  preachers  proclaimed  from 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  187 

the  pulpit  that  all  should  be  common,  and  that 
one  should  have  as  much  as  the  other.  "Dear 
Brethren  and  Sisters,"  said  they,  "  insomuch 
as  we  are  one  people,  brethren  and  sisters,  so 
it  is  the  whole  will  of  God  that  we  bring  our 
money,  silver  and  gold  together.  One  shall 
have  so  much  as  another.  Each  shall  bring  his 
money  up  to  the  chancery  by  the  Rathhaiis, 
there  shall  the  Council  sit  and  receive  the 
money."  Our  friend  Bernhardt  Rothmann  cried  : 
"  A  Christian  durst  have  no  money  be  it  silver 
or  gold.  He  is  a  Christian,  and  all  that  Christian 
brethren  or  sisters  have  belongs  to  the  one  as 
much  as  to  the  other.  The  brethren  shall  pos- 
sess no  other  thing  but  their  food,  clothes,  house 
and  home.  What  ye  require  that  shall  ye  obtain. 
God  will  have  nothing  lying  idle.  One  thing 
like  the  other  shall  be  common  to  all.  Such  is 
the  duty  of  us  all.  It  is  mine  as  well  as  thine, 
and  thine  as  well  as  mine."  Large  numbers 
of  the  faithful,  thus  admonished,  carried  their 
portable  property  to  the  place  appointed.  Many 
brought  their  entire  possessions  in  money  and 
precious  metals ;  others  brought  a  large  quantity, 
while  keeping  a  residue  for  private  purposes. 
The  latter  were  suspect,  while  those  who  refused 


1 88  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  comply  with  the  order  at  all,  chiefly  those 
who  had  been  compulsorily  baptized  on  the 
momentous  Friday,  were  declared  to  be  god- 
less, and  to  merit  being  rooted  out.  Against 
such  Jan  of  Leyden  inveighed  in  the  market 
place.  They  were  declared  outlaws  from  the 
Christian  community,  and  were  threatened  with 
so  severe  penalties  that  they  were  forced  to 
yield.  As  will  be  seen,  the  Communism  of  the 
Anabaptists  was  very  largely  the  exaggerated 
Christian  almsgiving  of  the  Annanias  and  Sap- 
phira  episode,  modified,  it  is  true,  by  a  little 
coercion,  but  in  its  form  at  least,  voluntary. 

In  every  parish  of  the  town  three  deacons 
were  appointed  to  administer  the  common  good 
in  the  shape  of  provisions.  Here  a  more 
genuine  communism  was  inaugurated,  but  was 
imperfectly  carried  out.  The  deacons  went  into 
all  the  houses,  impounding  corn,  meat  and  vege- 
tables, and  after  they  had  made  a  note  of  what 
they  required  for  the  use  of  the  poor  citizens, 
all  above  what  was  notified  the  proprietors  might 
keep  for  themselves. 

To  emphasise  the  solidarity  of  the  com- 
munity of  the  saints,  common  meals  were  now 
instituted.  In  front  of  every  gate  leading  out 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  189 

of  the  city  a  house  was  taken  over,  which  was 
called  the  house  of  the  community;  every  one 
could  go  and  eat  there,  though  it  was  proba- 
bly specially  designed  for  the  defenders  who 
kept  watch,  or  who  worked  at  the  defences 
of  moat  and  wall.  Before  every  gate  there 
was  a  captain  and  a  preacher.  Each  deacon 
was  responsible  for  one  of  these  houses,  whose 
function  it  was  to  supply  the  comestibles  and 
to  superintend  the  cook  and  caretaker  of  the 
house.  During  the  mid-day  meals,  a  youth  was 
appointed  to  read  a  chapter  from  the  Old 
Testament  or  from  the  Prophets.  When  those 
assembled  had  finished  they  sang  a  psalm  in 
the  vernacular,  after  which  they  rose  up  and 
left.  Thereupon,  the  rank  and  file  having  had 
their  food,  the  captains  and  officers  of  the  ad- 
ministration would  sit  down  to  table,  on  the 
principle  of  the  last  being  first  and  the  first 
last.  The  deacons  further  took  the  meat,  bacon, 
and  corn  from  the  monasteries  and  the  cellars  of 
those  burghers  who  had  left  the  town.  Gresbeck 
states  that  in  the  summer  of  1534  ten  to  twelve 
hundred  oxen  were  consumed,  together  with  a 
quantity  of  other  meat,  butter  and  cheese, 
besides  codfish  and  herring.  Herring,  however, 


190  JIISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

appears  not  to  have  been  popular  in  the  earlier 
days  when  there  was  plenty,  though,  as  Gres- 
beck  observes,  the  time  came  afterwards,  as  the 
town  began  to  suffer  from  the  effects  of  the 
continued  siege,  when  men  were  glad  enough 
to  get  herring  to  eat. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  modification  was  in- 
troduced into  the  government  of  the  town.  The 
prophets  with  the  preachers  or  apostles,  as  they 
were  variously  called,  chafed  at  being  nominally 
under  the  control  of  the  secular  authority  of 
the  Biirgermeisters  and  the  Great  Council,  not- 
withstanding that  the  latter  was  composed,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  of  fanatical  Anabaptists 
elected  on  the  23rd  of  February.  The  prophets 
and  preachers  were  almost  entirely  composed 
of  Dutchmen  and  Frieslanders. 

One  day  Jan  Matthys  invited  some  of  his 
countrymen  and  others  to  a  feast,  for  the  doc- 
trine of  Matthys  did  not  involve  asceticism  or 
the  mortification  of  the  flesh.  In  the  middle 
of  the  proceedings  Matthys  became  grave,  threw 
up  his  hands,  and  was  silent  for  a  few  moments. 
The  guests  were  stricken  with  amazement. 
Suddenly  he  rose  up,  and  with  the  words:  "Oh 
dear  Father,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt!" 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  191 

gave  each  person  present  his  hand,  at  the 
same  time  kissing  him  on  the  lips,  with  the 
words  "  God's  peace  be  with  you  all."  After 
which  he  departed  with  his  wife.  The  other 
guests,  after  remaining  some  time  longer,  also 
departed  on  their  several  ways.  The  next  day 
Jan  Matthys,  taking  with  him  some  twenty  com- 
panions, made  a  sortie  from  the  town  upon 
the  camp  of  the  enemy  outside  the  walls.  The 
attack  seems  to  have  been  courageous,  but  the 
handful  of  men  was  soon  overpowered,  and 
Jan  Matthys  fell  pierced  with  a  pike.  His  corpse 
was  immediately  seized  by  the  Bishop's  free- 
lances, his  head  severed  from  his  body,  and 
the  latter,  we  are  told,  hewn  into  a  hundred 
pieces.  The  Bishop's  free-lances  then  called 
over  the  walls  to  the  Anabaptists  in  the  town, 
that  they  should  come  out  and  fetch  their 
leader. 

Jan  Matthys  is  described  as  a  tall  man  with 
a  long  black  beard.  His  death  spread  conster- 
nation among  the  faithful  within  the  walls,  espe- 
cially among  the  Dutchmen  and  Frieslanders. 
With  the  death  of  Matthys,  his  disciple,  Jan 
Bockelson  of  Leyden,  naturally  became  the  leader 
of  the  movement  and  the  head  of  the  city. 


1 92  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Matthys  has,  of  course,  been  represented  by 
the  conventional  class-historian  as  a  designing 
rogue,  who  for  his  own  purposes  deceived  the 
people.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  to 
the  impartial  reader  how  utterly  inconsistent  is 
this  theory  with  the  admitted  circumstances  of 
his  death.  The  master-baker  of  Haarlem  was 
doubtless  a  genuine  fanatic,  if  there  ever  was 
one,  who  believed  in  all  truth  and  sincerity  in 
his  having  been  entrusted  with  a  divine  mission. 
Much  has  been  made,  as  shewing  his  eagerness 
for  the  good  things  of  life,  in  his  having  brought 
a  young  and  beautiful  wife  from  Haarlem  to 
Minister.  These  same  historians  find  nothing 
inconsistent  with  the  sincerity  of  Luther  in  his 
having  adjured  celibacy  and  taken  to  himself  a 
wife.  The  fact  was,  in  this  respect  the  two  men 
resembled  one  another.  Jan  Matthys  no  more 
believed  or  professed  asceticism  than  Martin 
Luther.  Consistent  to  the  last,  Matthys,  in  true 
Anabaptist  fashion,  when  in  the  midst  of  a  feast 
with  his  friends,  became  suddenly  inspired  with 
the  idea  that  he  had  a  call  to  risk  his  life  on 
the  morrow  at  the  head  of  a  handful  of  followers, 
in  order  to  free  the  New  Jerusalem  from  the 
besieging  cohorts  of  this  world.  He  loyally 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SAINTS.  193 

carried  out  the  mandate  of  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  will  of  God  as  revealed  to  him,  and  in 
this  way,  fearless,  and  faithful  to  his  convictions, 
went  to  his  death. 

The  same  religious  fanaticism  which  animated 
Matthys  continued  to  inspire  his  followers.  A 
young  woman  from  Friesland,  described  as  ex- 
ceptionally beautiful,  conceived  the  idea  of  acting 
the  part  of  another  Judith,  and  assassinating  the 
arch-enemy  of  the  New  Israel,  Bishop  Franz  von 
Waldeck  himself.  She  left  the  town  amid  the 
blessings  of  the  prophets,  the  preachers,  and 
Knipperdollinck.  Believing  it  to  have  been 
revealed  to  her  that  she  should  enter  unscathed 
in  open  daylight  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  she 
passed  out  of  the  gate  only  to  be  arrested  by 
the  outposts.  Brought  before  the  Bishop's 
Provost,  Theodor  von  Meerfeld,  she  first  excused 
her  proceeding  by  alleging  that  she  was  weary 
of  the  life  in  the  town,  and  that  she  had  pur- 
posely allowed  herself  to  be  made  prisoner  in 
order  to  reveal  to  the  Bishop  the  best  way  of 
obtaining  entrance.  She  refused,  however,  to 
disclose  anything  except  to  the  Prince-Bishop 
himself,  and  demanded  to  be  taken  to  him. 
Meanwhile  one  of  the  original  town  burghers, 

13 


1 94  JtlSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

who  knew  of  the  plan,  managed  to  escape,  and 
also  get  himself  arrested  by  the  Bishop's  sentries. 
In  consequence  of  this  man's  denunciation  Hille 
Feiken,  the  would-be  Judith,  was  placed  on  the 
rack,  and  a  full  confession  extorted  from  her. 
In  the  course  of  her  evidence  obtained  in  this 
manner  she  stated  that  before  coming  to  Miinster 
she  had  given  away  all  the  property  she  possess- 
ed in  her  native  place,  that  she  needed  neither 
money  nor  goods,  her  one  desire  being  to  live 
with  the  saints  in  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  that 
for  this  reason  she  had  wandered  thither.  The 
only  reward  she  hoped  for  in  the  success  of 
her  enterprise  was  the  knowledge  that  she  had 
delivered  the  saints  of  God  from  their  enemy. 
She  was  willing  to  suffer  whatever  might  befall 
her.  Nothing  should  turn  her,  neither  suffering 
nor  death,  from  the  word  of  God  as  preached 
by  his  prophets.  She  was  beheaded  after  having 
made  her  confession. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    NEW    ISRAEL. 

IN  the  midst  of  the  consternation  and  depres- 
sion among  the  Brethren  of  Miinster,  caused 
by  the  death  of  their  great  prophet,  the  voice 
of  Jan  Bockelson  of  Leyden,  his  disciple,  was 
heard  in  a  public  assembly  which  he  had  called, 
praying  the  brethren  not  to  despair  because 
their  leader  had  fallen,  u  for,"  said  he,  "  God 
shall  raise  up  unto  us  another  prophet,  who 
shall  be  greater  and  higher  than  was  even  Jan 
Matthys.  God  willed  that  Matthys  should  die, 
his  time  was  come,  and  God  hath  let  him  die, 
to  the  end  that  ye  should  not  place  all  your 
faith  in  him  and  hold  him  for  higher  than  God. 
For  what  Matthys  did  and  prophesied  was  even 
done  by  God  through  him,  and  God  is  even 
mighty  enough  to  give  unto  us  a  new  prophet  in 
his  stead."  The  oration  delivered  on  this  occasion 
raised  Bockelson  to  a  position  in  the  public  mind 
greater  than  even  that  he  had  previously  oc- 
cupied, and  secured  for  him  without  contradiction 


196  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  reversion  of  the  prophetic  mantle  of  Matthys, 
for  which  he  had  long  seemed  destined. 

The  doctrine  that  Miinster  was  the  holy  city, 
that  God  would  have  it,  that  all  who  dwelt  therein 
should  be  a  holy  people,  and  that  all  those 
still  in  sin  must  be  rooted  out,  was  incessantly 
preached.  After  every  exhortation  of  this  kind, 
the  disciples  of  the  new  prophet  would  once 
more  dash  through  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the 
town,  brandishing  their  naked  swords,  dancing, 
and  crying:  " Father,  father,  give  us  light!" 

The  temporary  depression  caused  by  the  fate 
of  Jan  Matthys  was  soon  followed  by  the  reac- 
tion in  the  shape  of  a  fresh  wave  of  fanaticism. 
Once  more  women  and  girls  were  to  be  seen 
with  hair  floating  in  the  wind  and  their  dress 
in  disorder,  dancing  in  the  cathedral  close,  anon 
proceeding  thence  in  wild  capers  through  the 
town,  up  one  street  and  down  another,  crying 
"  Father,  father,  father,  give,  give,  give  !"  They 
would  advance  in  pairs  and  then  join  hands 
and  dance  until  they  could  dance  no  more.  As 
they  were  led  home  exhausted  they  looked, 
says  our  contemporary  chronicler  Gresbeck,  "  so 
pale  and  so  white  of  countenance,  even  as 
though  they  had  been  dead." 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  197 

The    nominal    o-overnment    of   the    town  had 

o 

been  from  the  first,  as  may  be  imagined,  little 
more  than  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
prophets  and  their  followers.  Jan  of  Leyden 
now  bethought  himself  of  consolidating  his  own 
power  as  leader  and  of  organising  the  com- 
munity of  the  Saints  in  even  more  exact  ac- 
cordance than  heretofore  with  the  principles  of 
Anabaptism  as  interpreted  by  his  master  Jan 
Matthys  and  himself.  Jan  Bockelson  had  some- 
thing more  than  the  mere  elan  of  the  fanatic 
and  enthusiast,  such,  for  instance,  as  Melchior 
Hoffmann.  He  had  considerable  capacity  for 
organisation,  keenness  of  insight  into  the  charac- 
ters and  motives  of  men,  and  great  political 
adroitness.  He  knew  how  to  utilise  in  the  most 
effective  way  his  extraordinary  gift  of  popular 
oratory  and  to  win  the  now  mixed  population 
of  Munster  for  the  ideas  which  he  had  doubt- 
less persuaded  himself  into  sincerely  believing, 
that  Munster  was  the  chosen  city  of  God,  and 
that  the  power  of  its  holy  Saints  was  ordained 
to  extend  itself  over  all  nations,  tongues  and 
peoples.  Such  was  the  constant  theme  of  his 
discourses  on  the  frequent  occasions  when  the 
citizens  were  called  together  in  public  assembly. 


198  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Thus  enthusiasm  was  never  allowed  to  flag. 
But,  in  addition  to  his  hold  on  the  people, 
Jan  of  Leyden  had  the  tact  to  retain,  outwardly 
at  least,  the  confidence  of  the  leaders  who  had 
previously  acted  under  Matthys.  Bernhardt 
Rothmann,  Heinrich  Krechting,  of  whose  arrival 
in  MiAnster  we  have  already  spoken,  and,  above 
all,  Bernhardt  Knipperdollinck,  became  avowedly 
staunch  henchmen.  Bockelson  now  determined 
that  it  was  time  to  abolish  even  the  show  of 
an  independent  secular  power  such  as  was 
ostensibly  vested  in  the  Council  and  Biirger- 
meisters  elected  on  February  23rd.  The  New 
Jerusalem  must  have  a  definitely  theocratic  con- 
stitution. The  organisation  of  the  New  Israel 
should  be  modelled  on  that  of  the  Old.  One 
day,  therefore,  Jan  called  the  inhabitants  together 
and  informed  them  that  he  had  received  a  divine 
revelation  to  the  effect  that  a  new  government 
must  be  set  up.  The  old  one,  said  he,  was 
appointed  after  the  manner  of  men;  the  new 
one  should  be  established  by  God  himself  on 
the  model  given  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
proposition  was  at  once  agreed  to,  no  man 
daring  to  gainsay  the  prophet. 

Jan  next  proceeded  to  name  twelve  u  elders," 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  199 

influential  men  of  the  town,  some  of  them 
members  of  the  old  council.  Among  them  was 
the  ex-blirgermeister  Hermann  Tylbeck,  who 
was  now  again  received  into  Anabaptist  favour. 
These  elders  Bockelson  presented  to  the  people, 
amidst  their  acclamations,  as  their  future  govern- 
ment, at  the  same  time  publicly  handing  over 
to  them  the  sword  of  justice,  intimating  thereby 
that  they  had  power  over  life  and  death.  In 
imitation  of  the  biblical  model  a  table  of  the  law 
was  drawn  up,  containing  amongst  others  the 
following  provisions :  "  Each  shall  perform  his 
allotted  task  with  diligence,  shall  fear  God  and 
the  authority  set  over  him,  for  it  beareth  not 
the  sword  in  vain,  but  is  the  avenger  of  evil 
deeds.  All  things  which  the  elders  determine, 
the  prophet  Jan  of  Leyden  shall,  as  the  true 
servant  of  the  Almighty  and  of  his  holy  autho- 
rity, proclaim  to  the  congregation.  Bernhardt 
Knipperdollinck  shall  be  the  guardian  of  public 
order  and  the  magistrate  to  whom  is  intrusted 
the  carrying  out  of  the  decisions  of  the  elders. 
To  this  end  he  shall  be  accompanied  by  four 
attendants  in  arms." 

The  new  constitution,  embodied  in  this  table 
of   the   law,    contained   in  all  thirty-one  articles. 


200  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 


Some  there  were  regulating  the  victualling  of 
the  New  Israel,  the  fabrication  of  clothes  and 
other  details  affecting  the  industrial  and  economic 
life  of  the  community.  Seven  deacons  with 
subdeacons  were  appointed  to  superintend  and 
organise  this  department,  which  included  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  the  daily  meals^ 
already  referred  to  as  being  taken  by  the 
brethren  in  common  at  the  public  tables.  The 
military  and  defensive  operations  formed  another 
department  of  the  administration.  Church-bells 
and  the  metal  coating  of  steeples  were  melted 
down  and  used  for  military  purposes.  Heinrich 
Krechting  was  appointed  chancellor,  and  his 
signature  was  necessary  to  give  effect  to  all 
public  documents.  A  common  garb  was  enacted, 
and  a  special  cloth  provided,  that  the  clothing 
department  was  to  use  in  its  manufacture.  The 
table  of  the  law  concluded  with  the  provision: 
"Every  member  of  the  New  Israel  shall  follow 
without  wavering  every  precept  that  the  Holy 
Scripture  setteth  forth,  according  as  it  com- 
mandeth  or  forbiddeth  aught." 

The  twelve  Elders,  who  regarded  themselves 
as  representatives  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel, 
invariably  had  a  large  Bible  lying  open  before 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  201 

them  as  they  took  counsel.  In  their  capacity 
of  supreme  criminal  court  a  case  came  before 
them  on  June  28th,  which  has  sometimes  been 
quoted  as  an  instance  of  the  brutality  ot  the 
Anabaptist  regime  in  Miinster.  It  is  related  that 
some  free-lances,  probably  deserters  from  the 
Bishop's  camp,  were  holding  a  carouse,  and 
after  they  had  continued  their  potations  to  the 
point  of  hilarious  drunkenness,  the  innkeeper 
and  his  wife  refused  to  serve  them  any  more, 
at  which  they  threatened  to  go  and  treat  them- 
selves from  the  inn-cellars.  The  innkeeper  and 
his  wife  had  them  at  once  arrested  and  brought 
before  the  twelve,  alleging  their  rights  in  their 
own  house.  The  free-lances  were  ordered  to  be 
fettered  and  thrown  into  one  of  the  towers. 
The  next  day  they  were  called  up  to  the 
cathedral  close  to  be  tried.  Heinrich  Krechting, 
the  chancellor,  then  read  the  act  of  accusation 
which  he  had  drawn  up.  Thereupon  the  free- 
lances fell  upon  their  knees,  begging  for  mercy 
and  promising  to  work  all  day  in  the  moat  at 
the  most  laborious  of  the  defensive  operations, 
if  they  were  but  released.  In  the  result  -some 
were  allowed  grace,  whilst  others  were  con- 
demned to  death.  Of  these,  two  were  immediately 


202  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

bound  to  lime-trees  in  the  close,  and  shot  through 
the  body  with  firearms,  while  the  rest  were 
taken  back  to  prison  again.  The  following  day 
they  were  again  brought  to  the  same  place.  This 
time  four  of  the  condemned  were  bound  to  trees 
and  executed  in  the  same  manner  as  their 
companions  had  been  the  previous  day.  "  So," 
observes  our  friend  Meister  Heinrich  Gresbeck, 
"  were  these  same  fellows  shot  through  because 
of  a  hasty  word  and  a  drink  of  beer."  But 
here  again,  monstrous  as  the  sentence  seems, 
and  at  ordinary  times  doubtless  would  have  been 
even  in  the  Middle  Ages,  we  must  not  forget 
the  excessive  dread,  on  the  part  of  the  Ana- 
baptists, of  disturbance  in  the  town,  which  might 
be  purposely  got  up  to  afford  the  opportunity 
of  opening  one  of  the  gates  to  the  enemy. 
The  generally  hostile  witness,  Gresbeck,  admits 
the  strength  of  this  feeling  as  in  some  sort  a 
palliation  of  the  severity  exercised.  Moreover, 
the  defenders  were  few  compared  to  the  be- 
siegers, and  their  chief  advantage  over  them 
lay  in  their  sobriety  as  against  the  enemy's 
drunkenness. 

The  idea  that  absorbed  the  whole  community, 
that  the  entire  life  and  institutions  of  the  Brethren 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  203 

were  to  be  founded  on  the  Old  Testament,  was 
acted  on  up  to  the  introduction  of  polygamy. 
This  was  decided  at  a  meeting  consisting  of 
the  twelve  Elders  and  all  the  preachers,  where 
it  was  broached  by  Jan  of  Leyden  in  person. 
In  view  of  the  well-known  asceticism  of  the 
Anabaptists  in  general,  Karl  Kautsky  is  of  the 
opinion  that  this  step  was  rendered  almost  a 
necessity  owing  to  the  enormous  excess  of  the 
female  over  the  male  population  in  the  city. 
Certain  it  is,  as  he  justly  points  out,  that 
prostitution  was  not  tolerated  within  the  walls 
of  the  New  Jerusalem.  The  very  communism 
of  the  brethren  itself  sufficed  to  render  this 
difficult  or  impossible,  so  that  women  who  wished 
to  live  by  the  sale  of  their  bodies  had  no  alter- 
native but  to  seek  their  market  outside  the 
walls  amid  the  forces  of  law  and  order  in  the 
Bishop's  camp.  In  addition  to  this,  one  of  the 
first  edicts  of  the  twelve  Elders  was  one  of 
Draconian  severity  directed  against  adultery  and 
seduction.  It  would  look,  indeed,  as  though  the 
attempt  to  carry  out  sexual  asceticism  had  broken 
down  by  its  own  weight  and  the  weight  of  the 
conditions  in  which  the  town  was  placed,  and 
that  the  leaders  had  no  alternative  left  them 


204  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

other  than  to  regulate  the  disorder  caused  by 
nature  asserting  herself — a  disorder  which  no 
number  of  ascetic  edicts  of  however  drastic  a 
nature  could  effectually  stem — by  a  legal  modifi- 
cation of  the  marriage  system  adapted  to  the 
existing  circumstances.  How  far  the  precedent 
of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs  and  Kings  influenced 
the  decision  of  the  Anabaptist  authorities  is 
impossible  to  say  with  certainty,  though  that  it 
did  so  admits  of  no  doubt.  Whether  Jan's  appeal 
to  biblical  precedent  and  to  the  injunction  to 
be  fruitful  and  multiply,  etc.,  was  chiefly  the 
cover  used  to  sanction  a  measure  which  the 
prophet's  astuteness  in  practical  matters  led  him 
to  see  was  indispensable,  if  the  social  organisa- 
tion of  Miinster  was  to  hold  together,  or  whether 
the  logical  carrying-out  of  the  idea  of  the  New 
Israel  already  entered  upon  by  him  was  the 
determining  factor,  it  is  at  present  impossible  to 
decide.  It  may  be  remarked  in  this  connection, 
that  religious  asceticism  in  sexual  matters  has 
invariably  throughout  history  carried  its  own 
reaction  within  it.  It  has  always  tended  to  pass 
over  into  its  opposite. 

In    any  case  it  is  certain  that  the  number  of 
women    in    Miinster   during  the  siege  was  little 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  205 


short  of  three  times  that  of  the  men,  and  that 
perhaps  the  larger  number  of  these  women  were 
left  quite  without  male  protectors  or  friends,  many 
of  the  original  male  burghers  having  fled  and 
left  their  houses  in  charge  of  their  womenkind. 
This  of  itself  might  have  sufficed  at  least  to 
suggest  some  modification  of  the  marriage  law 
in  a  sense  adverse  to  strict  monogamy.  Jan, 
as  stated,  succeeded  without  much  difficulty,  in 
inducing  the  Elders  and  the  Preachers  to  take 
this  view  of  the  matter.  Rothmann,  indeed,  be- 
came especially  enthusiastic  on  the  question.  As 
to  the  women,  they  seem  to  have  been  divided 
in  their  views.  Some  are  said  to  have  objected 
strongly,  one  indeed,  we  are  told,  preferring 
suicide  to  compliance.  The  majority,  however, 
the  evidence  shows,  readily  and  even  joyfully 
acquiesced  in  the  new  order  of  things. 

The  edict  enjoining  all  women  to  unite  them- 
selves with  one  of  the  brethren  was  promulgated 
by  Rothmann  as  spokesman  for  the  leaders,  on 
July  23rd.  It  now  became  the  test  of  good 
citizenship  to  carry  out  this  mandate.  Those 
who  proposed  to  marry  were  to  give  three  days 
notice,  during  which  they  were  to  pray  that  God 
would  bless  the  new  union  with  offspring,  and 


206  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  vow  to  live  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  God 
and  his  chosen  people,  the  Saints.  Rothmann 
adjured  the  people  assembled  in  the  cathedral 
close  in  enthusiastic  tones  that  it  was  the  will 
of  the  Lord  that  the  Saints  should  increase  and 
multiply  as  the  sands  of  the  sea,  and  that  all 
who  refused  to  accept  the  new  matrimonial 
relations  were  incurring  the  wrath  of  God,  which 
would  sweep  them  from  the  earth.  His  dis- 
course was  greeted  with  shouts :  u  Long  live 
the  prophet!"  The  preacher,  Bernhardt  Krech- 
ting,  brother  of  Heinrich,  then  cried  out:  "All 
his  laws  are  holy  and  wise ! "  a  cry  that  was 
repeated  by  the  assembled  concourse  as  one 
man.  Therewith  was  the  new  regime  inaugurated. 
But  there  remained  some,  specially  among  the 
men,  otherwise  zealous  Anabaptists,  who  still 
had  misgivings  on  the  point.  These  the  prophets 
in  a  series  of  discourses  lasting  three  days,  set 
themselves  to  convince,  calling  to  their  aid 
biblical  examples  of  Abraham,  Jacob,  David, 
Solomon,  etc.  In  this  they  seem  to  have  been 
successful,  so  far  at  least  as  the  otherwise  sincere 
adherents  of  the  Anabaptist  doctrine  were 
concerned. 

The    secret    enemies,    however,    of  the    new 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  207 

regime  thought  this  a  favourable  moment  to  stir 
up  strife  and  betray  the  town.  A  certain  "  master- 
smith,"  an  ex-alderman,  named  Heinrich  Mollen- 
becke,  constituted  himself  the  leader  of  this 
movement  and  soon  gathered  together  some 
two  hundred  partisans,  whom  he  persuaded  to 
make  a  bold  stroke  for  overthrowing  the  Ana- 
baptist authority,  seizing  the  leaders,  and  opening 
the  gates  to  Franz  von  Waldeck.  the  Prince- 
Bishop.  Accordingly,  just  a  week  after  the 
promulgation  of  the  edict  concerning  polygamy 
by  Rothmann  in  the  Cathedral  close,  on  the 
3Oth  of  July,  at  midnight,  the  houses  of  Bockel- 
son,  Rothmann,  the  Krechtings,  Knipperdollinck, 
and  other  prominent  Anabaptists,  were  broken 
into  and  they  themselves  bound  and  carried 
captive  into  the  Rathhaus.  The  people  having 
been  called  together,  Mollenbecke  and  his 
accomplices  endeavoured  to  enlist  their  sym- 
pathies for  the  coup  detat  they  had  accomplished. 
The  result  was  not  encouraging  to  the  con- 
spirators, a  few  cheered,  but  the  bulk  either 
remained  silent  or  gave  vent  to  murmurings. 
Nothing  daunted,  the  conspirators  determined 
on  the  surrender  of  the  town.  Luckily  for  the 
Anabaptists,  however,  and  unluckily  for  them- 


208  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

selves,  they  resolved  to  postpone  action  to  the 
following  day.  In  the  ensuing  hours  the  loyal 
Anabaptists  were  not  idle,  and  the  following 
morning  the  call-drum,  which  Mollenbecke  caused 
to  be  beaten  for  the  purpose  of  rallying  his 
followers  on  the  Market-street,  was  also  the 
signal  for  the  Anabaptists,  headed  by  the  master- 
goldsmith  Redecker,  or  as  some  accounts  say 
Tylbeck,  to  appear  on  the  scene.  Considerably 
outnumbering  the  rebels  as  they  did,  they  had 
no  difficulty  in  scattering  them,  after  making 
twelve  prisoners.  The  ringleaders  with  a  few 
followers  retreated  into  the  Ratkhaus,  which  they 
made  their  citadel.  Redecker  and  his  friends, 
however,  lost  no  time  in  posting  cannon  over 
against  the  municipal  head-quarters,  which  after 
a  short  bombardment  was  forced  to  capitulate, 
Mollenbecke  and  his  band  being  driven  amid 
a  shower  of  blows  and  curses  to  prison.  Four 
thousand  gulden  stolen  from  the  municipal  coffers 
were  found  on  their  persons.  Jan  of  Leyden 
and  his  colleagues  were  liberated  amid  the 
plaudits  of  the  people. 

The  next  day  Mollenbecke  and  seven  com- 
panions were  fastened  with  iron  bands  round 
their  necks  to  the  lime-trees  in  the  cathedral 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  209 

close.  Before  them  a  judgment  seat  had  been 
erected  and  on  it  sat  the  prophet  himself.  Having 
passed  sentence  of  death,  Jan  called  upon  those 
present,  as  they  would  do  God  a  service,  to 
fire  the  first  shot.  The  head  conspirators,  includ- 
ing Mollenbecke,  having  been  despatched  in  this 
manner  by  the  populace,  Bockelson  called  upon 
Knipperdollinck  and  his  four  assistants  to  deal 
justice  to  the  remaining  prisoners,  fifty-eight  in 
number,  who  had  been  guarded  in  the  back- 
ground. Knipperdollinck,  with  the  red  mantle 
of  the  executioner  thrown  over  his  arm,  stepped 
forward  holding  aloft  the  great  sword.  One 
after  another  the  remaining  prisoners  were 
beheaded  and  their  corpses  buried  in  two  large 
ditches.  Reactionary  writers  have  of  course 
made  the  most  of  this  exercise  of  martial 
law,  to  the  detriment  of  the  Anabaptists,  con- 
veniently forgetting  that  had  such  executions 
taken  place  at  the  behest  of  the  representatives 
of  class-interest  and  its  order,  they  would  have 
been  the  first  to  applaud  the  act  as  showing 
" vigour"  under  circumstances  calling  for  a 
"  strong  hand." 

The    measures    adopted   on    this   occasion,  in 
any    case,    seem    to    have    had    the    effect    of 

14 


210  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

silencing  opposition  to  the  new  edict  and  the 
Anabaptist  administration  generally.  It  was  now 
compulsory  for  every  woman  to  have  a  husband, 
although  the  choice  of  whom  they  would  have  was 
left  to  them.  All  previous  marriages  were  held 
to  be  dissolved  as  such  by  the  new  edict.  In 
most  cases,  however,  the  original  wives  remained 
on  condition  of  cheerfully  receiving  the  new 
comers,  whom  they  were  to  embrace  with  the 
greeting:  "Welcome,  dear  Christian  sister!" 
This  did  not  prevent  disturbances  from  arising 
in  households  between  the  womenfolk.  So  serious 
did  this  become  in  certain  cases  that  the  autho- 
rities had  to  step  in,  and  numbers  of  quarrel- 
some women  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  in 
the  Rosenthal  Monastery,  which  had  been  set 
apart  for  the  purpose.  In  those  cases  where 
the  continuance  of  marital  relations  or  of  co- 
habitation proved  untenable,  divorces  were 
granted. 

The  prophet  Bockelson  set  the  example  of 
obedience  to  the  new  regulation,  in  taking  to 
himself  three  wives,  Divara,  widow  of  the  deceas- 
ed Jan  Matthys,  Knipperdollinck's  daughter  Klara, 
and  Margaretha  Modersohn.  Rothmann  also  took 
three  wives,  a  course  soon  followed  by  the  other 


THE  NE  W  ISRA  EL  211 

leaders,  including  the  Krechtings  and  Knipper- 
dollinck  himself.  The  original  wife  of  Knipperdol- 
linck,  having  spoken  evil  words  of  the  edict 
enjoining  this  reconstruction  of  domestic  relations, 
had  to  suffer  the  penalty.  She  was  compelled 
to  stand  for  some  hours  on  the  Prinzipalmarkt, 
holding  the  executioner's  sword,  and  then  to 
humbly  beg  forgiveness.  Six  schools  were  now 
established  in  different  parts  of  the  town  for  the 
instruction  of  the  children  in  the  Anabaptist 
doctrine. 

Meanwhile  the  siege  was  continuing,  but  the 
military  situation  was  not  unfavorable  to  the 
Anabaptists.  After  vainly  endeavouring  to  initiate 
negotiations  for  peace  early  in  May,  the  manning 
of  the  fortifications  had  been  carried  on  with 
redoubled  vigour  and  sorties  made  almost  daily. 
The  Bishop,  already  sorely  tried  in  his  resources, 
resolved  to  attempt  to  carry  the  town  by  storm. 
A  demand  for  surrender  was  accordingly  made 
on  Whitsunday,  May  24th.  On  the  demand 
being  refused,  preparations  were  made  for  the 
assault.  Owing,  however,  to  premature  movement 
of  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  besieging  army, 
as  well  as  to  the  vigilance  of  the  Anabaptist 
guards  on  the  walls,  Bockelson,  the  Krechtings, 


2i2  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  Knipperdollinck  had  time  to  organise  their 
followers,  who  encountered  the  Bishop's  forces 
with  such  a  vigorous  resistance  that  they  were 
driven  back  in  confusion  with  heavy  loss,  amidst 
the  triumphant  shouts  of  the  defenders. 

This  success  naturally  contributed  to  further 
the  Anabaptist  cause,  not  only  in  Mtinster  but 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  neighbouring  terri- 
tories, and  seemed  to  give  hope  of  a  diversion 
in  the  shape  of  a  general  rising.  For  the  next 
three  months  no  further  attempt  on  a  great  scale 
was  made  by  the  besiegers  to  seize  the  town, 
the  idea  being  apparently  to  reduce  it  by  famine. 
Towards  the  end  of  August,  however,  the  in- 
habitants perceived  indications  of  a  renewed 
assault  being  in  preparation.  The  defenders 
could  see  from  the  walls  that  trenches  were 
being  dug,  cannon  brought  into  position,  and  an 
unwonted  activity  displayed  in  the  camp.  The 
result  was  once  more  enthusiasm  and  organisation 
on  the  part  of  the  Anabaptists ;  this  time  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  old  and  young,  including 
the  women,  according  to  Gresbeck,  hurried  to 
the  walls  to  assist  in  the  work.  "  Within  the 
city,"  says  he,  u  was  not  one  left,  save  old 
people  and  sick  people."  The  practice  of  chaffing 


THE  NE  W  ISRAEL.  2 1 3 


the  soldiers  of  the  Bishop,  a  favourite  diversion 
of  the  Anabaptists  on  the  walls,  was  freely 
resorted  to  on  this  occasion.  "  When  will  ye 
come?  We  have  baked  and  brewed,  three  and 
four  nights  long,  the  brew  is  long  finished :  will 
ye  not  come?:'  But  it  was  not  before  the  next 
morning  that  the  Bishop's  free-lances  ventured 
on  the  attack.  Meanwhile  every  preparation 
had  been  made  to  receive  them.  On  the  first 
signal  of  battle,  the  defenders  crowded  to  man 
the  outer  fortifications  and  the  gates,  which  were 
the  object  of  attack,  and  with  them  they  brought 
u  tar-wreaths,"  heavy  stones,  and  vessels  contain- 
ing boiling  water  and  quick-lime,  all  which  things 
were  hurled  down  on  the  heads  of  the  assaulting 
free-lances,  who,  driven  back,  returned  again  to 
the  charge,  and  in  some  instances  three  times, 
but  in  vain.  Leaving  numbers  of  dead  and 
wounded  behind  them,  they  were  forced  at  length 
to  retreat  into  their  camp,  once  more  amid  the 
derisive  cries  and  mocking  challenges  of  the 
Miinsterites.  After  this  success  Jan  of  Leyden, 
with  his  colleagues  and  the  Preachers,  headed 
a  joyous  procession  through  the  town,  singing 
hymns  of  thanksgiving.  Addressing  the  assembled 
people:  " Dear  brethren,"  said  Jan,  uhave  we 


214  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

not  a  strong  God?  He  it  is  who  has  helped  us. 
With  our  own  might  we  had  not  done  it.  Let 
us  now  be  joyful,  and  give  thanks  to  the  Father !  " 
The  danger  passed,  no  time  was  lost  in  rebuilding 
the  gates  destroyed  by  the  onslaught  of  the  free- 
lances and  in  repairing  the  fortifications. 

But  this  military  success  was  not  merely  of 
moment  for  the  defence  of  the  town.  It  also  had 
important  results  in  matters  of  internal  politics, 
since  it  was  the  direct  occasion  of  the  assumption 
by  Jan  of  Leyden  of  the  dignity  of  King 
of  the  New  Zion.  The  idea,  it  is  said,  had 
already  been  mooted  amongst  the  leaders.  It  was 
indeed  in  consonance,  like  the  rest  of  their  orga- 
nisation, with  the  biblical  model.  A  few  days 
after  the  defeat  of  the  Bishop's  army  an  Anabaptist 
preacher,  who  recently  had  attained  the  rank  of 
prophet,  appeared  on  the  Prinzipalmarkt  be- 
fore the  assembled  people,  declaring  that  the 
Heavenly  Father  had  revealed  to  him  that  Jan 
of  Leyden,  that  holy  man  and  prophet  of  God, 
had  been  divinely  called  to  be  King  of  the 
whole  earth,  to  cast  down  the  mighty  from 
their  seats  and  raise  up  them  of  low  degree. 
To  him  should  be  given  the  crown,  sceptre, 
and  throne  of  his  father  David,  until  God  should 


THE  NE  W  ISRAEL .  215 

take  it  from  him  again.  He  then  called  upon 
the  twelve  Elders  to  resign  their  office  into  the 
hands  of  the  new  King,  and,  as  a  symbol 
thereof,  to  hand  over  the  sword  of  justice  which 
they  had  received  on  their  appointment.  On  the 
Elders  surrendering  their  sword  of  office  to  the 
speaker,  the  latter,  calling  upon  Jan  of  Leyden, 
then  formally  handed  over  the  emblem  of  supreme 
authority  to  the  new  King,  with  the  words : 
"Receive  this  sword  of  justice,  and  therewith 
the  power  to  bring  all  the  peoples  on  the 
earth  under  thy  authority ! "  Having  then  an- 
ointed the  head  of  Jan,  in  biblical  fashion,  he 
proclaimed  in  a  loud  voice :  "  In  the  face  of  the 
whole  people  of  God,  I  declare  thee  hereby 
King  of  the  New  Zion."  Thereupon,  the 
anointed  one,  Jan  Bockelson  of  Leyden,  him- 
self stepped  forward  to  address  the  people: 
uGod  hath  chosen  me,"  he  said,  "to  be  King 
over  the  whole  world.  But  I  tell  ye,  dear 
brethren  and  sisters,  I  had  rather  tend  the 
swine  or  follow  the  plough  than  be  King.  Yet 
that  which  I  do,  I  must  forsooth  do,  in  that  God 
hath  appointed  me  thereto."  After  he  had 
thus  spoken,  Gresbeck  tells  us,  the  people 
remained  silent,  until  Jan  called  upon  them 


216  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  praise  and  thank  God,  upon  which  they  broke 
out  into  the  hymn :  u  To  God  on  high  alone 
be  praise,"  after  which  the  assembly  dispersed. 
The  first  act  of  Jan  of  Leyden,  in  his  new 
capacity,  was  the  re-organisation  of  public 
functions.  The  twelve  Elders  resigned  as  such, 
though  many  were  appointed  to  places  in  the 
new  organisation.  Jan  reserved  to  himself  the 
office  of  public  executioner.  The  meaning  of 
this,  as  Kautzky  has  pointed  out,  is  not  far  to 
seek.  The  office  of  executioner,  in  mediaeval 
times,  was  reckoned  the  lowest  and  most 
degraded  calling,  involving  social  ostracism. 
Bockelson,  therefore,  in  his  new  capacity  of  King 
of  Zion,  in  taking  upon  himself  the  obloquy  of 
this  office,  was  only  following  out  the  New  Test- 
ament injunction,  so  dear  to  the  Anabaptist 
heart,  that  the  first  should  be  last  and  that  he 
who  would  be  highest  should  be  servant  of  all. 
Knipperdollinck  became  in  this,  as  in  all  other 
functions,  the  representative,  or  vice-steward, 
of  the  King.  Rothmann  was  made  royal  orator 
and  steward.  Most  of  the  former  twelve  Elders, 
with  other  prominent  Anabaptists,  became  royal 
counsellors.  Hermann  Tylbeck  was  made  master 
of  the  ceremonies. 


THE  NE  W  ISRAEL.  2 1 7 

Jan,  who,  like  his  master,  Matthys,  was  no 
puritan,  but,  on  the  contrary,  seems  to  have 
always  had  a  taste  for  the  dramatic  and  was 
never  averse  to  display  as  such,  arranged  his 
court  down  to  the  smallest  detail,  with  due 
regard  to  scenic  effect.  He  always  appeared 
in  public  richly  attired  and  surrounded  by  a 
numerous  retinue.  Two  crowns  were  made  for 
him,  a  royal  crown  and  an  imperial  crown,  both 
of  which  were  of  the  finest  gold  and  covered 
with  precious  stones.  He  wore  a  golden  chain, 
still  extant,  to  which  a  ball  was  attached, 
containing  two  crossed  swords,  the  ball  emblem- 
atic of  the  world,  the  crossed  swords  of  the 
highest  jurisdiction.  On  the  ball  was  a  golden 
cross  on  which  were  the  words :  "  A  Kine  of 

o 

righteousness  everywhere."  His  royal  sword, 
with  its  golden  sheath,  was  attached  to  a  heavy 
golden  belt.  The  sceptre  was  rich  in  gold  and 
precious  stones.  The  goldsmiths '  and  tailors ' 
guilds  in  the  New  Jerusalem  were  busily 
employed  for  weeks  in  furnishing  forth  the 
insignia  of  the  new  court.  For  the  numerous 
retinue  were  attired  on  a  scale  of  correspond- 
ing magnificence.  Their  garments  of  the  finest 
cloth  and  silk  were  light  blue  and  red  \  on  their 


2i8  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 

arms  gleamed  the  heraldic  shield  of  the  new 
Kingdom,  the  globe,  the  cross,  and  the  swords. 
Divara,  the  late  widow  of  Matthys,  noted  for 
her  beauty,  was  named  queen  by  Bockelson, 
the  other  wives  being  enjoined  to  obey  her  in 
all  things.  Even  these  secondary  wives,  how- 
ever, were  allowed  to  gratify  their  vanity  to 
the  full  in  the  matter  of  dress  and  toilet  luxuries. 
On  the  Prinzipalmarkt  a  magnificent  throne 
was  erected,  to  which  the  King  repaired  three 
times  a  week  in  state,  to  administer  justice. 
On  these  occasions  his  comino;  was  heralded 

O 

by  a  fanfare  of  trumpets.  Before  him  marched 
the  master  of  the  ceremonies,  Hermann  Tylbeck, 
with  a  white  staff  in  his  hand.  Immediately 
behind  followed  the  King,  attired  in  his  royal 
garments,  the  crown  on  his  head,  the  sceptre 
in  his  hand,  riding  on  a  white  horse  and  accom- 
panied by  two  gorgeously  dressed  pages,  one 
on  either  side,  one  bearing  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  other  the  great  sword  of  justice.  A 
long  procession  followed,  headed  by  the  vice- 
gerent Knipperdollinck,  the  royal  orator  Roth- 
mann  and  the  newly  appointed  chancellor 
Krechting.  The  rest  of  the  procession  con- 
sisted of  councillors  and  attendants  on  horse- 


THE  NE  W  ISRAEL.  .219 

back  and  on  foot,  whilst  bringing  up  the 
rear,  came  the  royal  bodyguard,  who  sur- 
rounded the  throne  and  court  during  the 
judicial  proceedings. 

The  pomp  and  magnificence  of  the  new  King- 
dom, Jan  declared,  was  for  the  honor  and  glory 
of  God.  He,  a  poor  human  being,  was  simply 
acting  as  God's  representative  on  earth.  The 
time  was  at  hand,  said  he,  when  the  whole 
people  of  the  New  Israel  should  sit  on  silver 
chairs  and  eat  from  silver  tables,  when  gold 
and  silver  would  have  no  more  value  than 
common  stones,  for  the  Glory  of  this  world 
should  pass  away  into  the  hands  of  the  Saints. 
Addressing  the  people  on  the  first  occasion 
that  he  thus  appeared  after  his  coronation,  Jan 
painted  in  glowing  terms  to  the  citizens,  the 
time  coming  when  the  Kingdom  of  God  should 
be  established  over  all  the  Kingdoms  of  the 
earth,  when  he  and  his  followers  should 
go  forth  from  Miinster  conquering  and  to 
conquer.  Bockelson  showed  himself  in  the 
new  organisation  at  once  energetic  and 
politic,  he  had  obtained  the  support  and 
attached  to  his  person  all  the  influential 
Anabaptists  in  Miinster.  His  bodyguard  and 


220.  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

most  of  his  courtiers  were  composed  of 
his  compatriots,  the  Dutchmen  and  Fries- 
landers.  l 

The  pomp  and  show  that  characterised  the 
reign  of  Jan  Bockelson  as  King  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem has  often  enough  been  treated  as  conclusive 
evidence  of  hypocrisy.  There  is,  however,  no 
justification  for  this  conclusion.  It  is  quite  ad- 
missible to  suppose  that  these  things  were  done 
simply  to  inspire  confidence  in  the  people  by 
the  outward  signs  of  wealth  and  power.  The 
whole  wealth  of  the  city  appeared  concentrated 
in  the  new  state,  in  the  official  representation 
of  the  community  of  the  Saints.  To  make  this 
official  representation  of  the  new  order  of  things 
as  imposing  as  possible  was  to  impress  the 
imagination  of  the  people,  to  keep  their  spirits 

1  In  the  account  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  the 
assumption  of  the  Kingship  by  Jan  of  Leyden,  I  have  in 
the  main  followed  the  treatment  of  the  subject  by  Dr. 
Ludwig  Keller,  who  in  his  capacity  of  Royal  Librarian  and 
Keeper  of  the  Archives  at  Miinster,  has  had  the  opportunity 
of  investigating  the  whole  of  the  extant  state  documents 
relating  to  the  Anabaptists  in  Miinster,  and  is  hence  the 
best  court  of  appeal  on  doubtful  points.  I  have  purposely 
disregarded  the  foolish  and  malignant  gossip  of  Kerssen- 
broick,  which  some  later  historians  have  repeated. 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL. 


up,  and  to  encourage  them  in  their  resistance, 
alike  passive  and  active,  to  the  common  foe. 
To  this  must  be  added,  however,  that  Jan  had 
the  dramatic  instinct  strong  in  him.  It  doubtless 

O 

seemed  to  him  appropriate  that  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, the  model  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
throughout  the  earth,  should  be  inaugurated 
with  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  charac- 
teristic of  mediaeval  temporal  power.  That  as 
a  mere  matter  of  policy  he  was  right,  is  in- 
dicated by  the  fact  of  the  length  of  time  the 
city  held  out,  and  of  the  comparative  unanimity 
that  the  population  displayed  during  the  sub- 
sequent period  of  the  siege. 

A  new  prophet  now  arose  in  the  person  of 
one  Henrikus,  an  ex-schoolmaster.  One  day, 
as  the  King  was  on  his  throne  on  the  Prinzipal- 
markt,  surrounded  by  his  court  for  the  purpose 
of  administering  justice,  this  Henrikus  rose  up 
and  declared  that,  for  three  nights  in  succes- 
sion, he  had  been  awakened  at  a  certain  hour 
by  a  voice  saying:  " Prepare."  On  the  third 
night,  he  had  fallen  on  his  knees  with  a  prayer : 
"  Dear  Father,  what  shall  I  prepare?"  where- 
upon the  voice  answered  him :  u  Thou  shalt 
proclaim  to  my  people  great  joy."  After  this 


222  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

statement,  Jan  arose,  saying:  uDear  brethren 
and  sisters,  let  us  thank  the  Father,"  and  there- 
upon knelt  down.  The  assembled  people  did 
the  same,  singing  a  German  psalm.  Another 
day,  Dusentschur,  the  goldsmith  of  Warendorf, 
he  who  had  anointed  Bockelson  Kingr  and  who 

o 

had  for  some  time  held  the  rank  of  prophet,  rose 
up  on  the  Prinzipalmarkt,  in  the  presence  of 
the  King  and  people,  declaring  that  God  had 
revealed  to  him  a  sumptuary  ordinance  respect- 
ing the  number  of  clothes  that  Christian  brethren 
and  sisters  might  retain  for  their  own  use. 
This  divine  revelation,  he  explained,  ordained 
that  a  man  might  not  have  in  his  possession 
more  than  one  coat,  two  pairs  of  hose,  two 
doublets,  and  three  shirts:  a  woman  only  one 
skirt,  one  mantle  and  four  chemises.  No  one 
should  possess  more  than  one  bed  and  four 
sheets.  This  ordinance  at  once  acquired  the 
force  of  law.  Bockelson  ordered  the  deacons 
to  make  a  house-to-house  visitation  sequestrating 
all  the  property  that  they  found  over  and  above 
the  allotted  measure.  Thus  far  the  communistic 
principles  of  Anabaptism  were  consistently  car- 
ried out.  All  the  riding  horses  of  the  town 
were  now  concentrated  in  the  court  of  the  King's 


THE  NE  W  ISRAEL.  223 

residence    abutting   on  the  cathedral  close,  and 

o 

a  squadron  of  light  horse  was  now  organised 
as  additional  body-guard.  They  were  frequently 
exercised,  clad  in  full  armour,  in  front  of  the 
cathedral,  in  order  that  the  people  might  be 
still  further  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
material  power  at  the  disposal  of  their  cause. 

We  have  seen  that  Jan  Bockelson  had  suc- 
ceeded not  only  in  acquiring  the  enthusiastic 
support  of  the  people,  but  also  in  attaching  all 
the  leaders  to  him  as  supreme  head  of  the 
Miinster  community.  Whether  this  adhesion  to 
the  new  order  of  things  was  in  all  cases  purely 
voluntary  has  been  called  in  question.  Keller 
conjectures  that  especially  Knipperdollinck  and 
Rothmann  had  been  driven  by  circumstances  into 
the  new  position  they  occupied  rather  than  had 
been  consciously  working  for  it.  They  certainly, 
more  particularly  Knipperdollinck,  suffered  a  loss 
of  power  and  prestige  through  the  change. 
Rothmann  had  been  for  some  months  little  more 
than  the  spokesman  and  echo  of  the  Dutch 
prophets.  But  Knipperdollinck  had  until  recently 
occupied  the  foremost  position  in  the  Mianster 
Commonwealth.  It  is  readily  conceivable  that 
the  new  development  of  things  was  not  quite 


224  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  his  liking.  Certain  actions  of  his  are  reported, 
tending  to  show  that  he  at  one  time  really 
meditated  the  overthrow  of  Bockelson.  He 
withdrew  himself,  it  is  said,  some  days  from 
public  affairs  into  his  house,  and  then  went  out 
declaring  that  he  had  a  revelation,  visiting,  it 
is  said,  the  people  working  at  the  defences. 
But  the  nature  of  the  revelation  our  informant 
Gresbeck  does  not  tell  us. 

Shortly  afterwards,  Knipperdollinck  had  the 
call  to  repentance  cried  in  the  streets,  a  practice 
which  was  common  previous  to  the  communi- 
cation of  some  new  revelation  to  the  Brethren. 
It  so  happened  that  this  was  one  of  the  days 
on  which  Jan  held  his  court  of  justice  on  the 
market-place.  As  usual  on  such  occasions,  one 
of  the  preachers  was  addressing  the  multitude, 
it  being  the  custom  for  a  sermon  to  be  delivered 
at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  proceedings. 
Knipperdollinck  burst  in  upon  the  assembly  in 
the  middle  of  the  discourse,  crying :  uHoly,  holy, 
holy  is  the  Lord,  holy  is  the  Father,  and  we 
are  a  holy  people!"  As  he  said  this,  he  began 
to  dance  in  front  of  the  King's  throne,  declaring 
that  the  preceding  night  it  had  been  revealed 
to  him  that  he  was  to  play  the  part  of  court- 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  225 

fool.  He  then  began  to  perform  the  antics  of 
a  madman,  prostrating  himself  before  the  throne, 
jumping  up  and  down,  throwing  himself  into  all 
manner  of  gestures.  He  called  upon  one  of 
the  attendants  with  a  halberd  to  follow  him 
and  strike  down  the  godless.  Knipperdollinck 
continued  dancing  till  he  fell  over  two  of  the 
benches  on  which  the  women  were  sitting, 
rolling  over  on  the  ground  as  one  possessed. 
Rising  to  his  feet,  he  declared  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  passed  through  him,  and  proceeded 
to  kiss  the  bystanders  on  the  mouth,  with  the 
words:  "Thou  art  holy,  God  hath  made  thee 
holy!"  Jan,  who  had  looked  on  in  silent  em- 
barrassment, at  last  rose  up,  saying:  "Dear 
Brethren  and  Sisters,  let  us  praise  and  thank 
God  and  go  home ! "  The  multitude  then  dispersed 
after  a  remonstrance  addressed  by  Knipper- 
dollinck to  the  King  and  the  singing  of  a  hymn. 
The  next  day  there  was  again  an  assembly 
on  the  Prinzipalmarkt.  On  this  occasion,  it  is 
related,  Knipperdollinck  advanced  before  Jan 
and  seated  himself  on  the  throne  in  his  stead, 
with  the  words:  "It  is  I  who  of  right  should 
be  King  here,  since  it  is  I  who  have  made 
thee  what  thou  art."  At  this  Bockelson  was 


226  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

enraged  and  went  home.  He  subsequently 
returned,  however,  and  resumed  his  place  on 
the  throne,  which  Knipperdollinck  had  now 
vacated.  Having  bidden  Knipperdollinck  to  be 
silent,  Jan  addressed  the  people,  saying :  ll  Dear 
Brethren  and  Sisters,  heed  ye  not  the  thing 
which  Knipperdollinck  hath  said,  for  he  is  not 
in  his  right  mind."  He  proceeded  to  deliver 
one  of  those  eloquent  discourses  that  had  always 
won  the  heart  of  the  people,  who  remained 
unaffected  by  what  had  happened  in  their  loyalty 
to  him.  Jan  had  Knipperdollinck  arrested.  He 
was  liberated  after  three  days  on  begging 
pardon  and  averring  that  he  had  been  beguiled 
by  the  devil,  not  knowing  what  he  did.1  (Gres- 
beck,  Bericht,  pp.  142 — 50). 

A  complete  reconciliation  between  Bockelson 

1  Gresbeck  hints  at  other  causes  for  Bockelson's  resent- 
ment, besides  the  ostensible  one  in  question.  He  seems  to 
suggest  that  Knipperdollinck  was  connected  with  a  party 
among  the  Anabaptists  in  the  town,  who  advocated  the 
appointment  of  an  additional  king.  "They  would,"  he  says, 
"have  a  worldly  and  spiritual  king."  "Many  of  these,"  he 
says,  "were  also  seized  and  kept  many  days  in  durance. 
The  same  are  Dutchmen  and  Frieslanders ;  had  they  been 
burghers  or  free-lances  the  King  would  have  had  them 
beheaded." 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  227 

and  Knipperdollinck  seems  to  have  been  effected 
before  many  days  were  over,  for  shortly  after- 
wards we  hear  of  a  triumphal  procession  of  Jan 
through  all  the  streets  and  open  places  of  the 
town,  when  he  was  accompanied  by  his  court 
and  his  full  military  retinue,  horse  and  foot, 
with  Knipperdollinck,  in  his  earlier  capacity 
of  master  of  the  ceremonies,  taking  a  leading 
part.  Everywhere  the  King  of  the  New  Jerusalem 
was  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  the  whole  popu- 
lation, the  women  especially  distinguishing  them- 
selves by  the  ardour  of  their  loyalty.  As  yet, 
in  the  late  autumn  and  early  winter  of  1534, 
want  of  provisions  had  hardly  made  itself  felt 
in  Miinster.  The  public  tables  were  still  fairly 
well  supplied,  and  from  time  to  time  special 
feasts  were  given  in  the  King's  palace  or  in 
the  open  air  in  the  cathedral  close,  now  called 
by  the  faithful  the  Hill  of  Zion.  Jan,  with  his 
artistic  instincts,  saw  to  it  that  the  proceedings 
were  accompanied  by  music  and  at  times  by 
song  and  dance  as  well.  At  intervals  on  these 
occasions  a  chapter  of  the  Old  Testament  would 
be  read  by  someone  appointed  for  the  purpose. 
Some  of  these  functions,  were  kept  up  far 
into  the  night. 


228  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

As  showing  the  devotion  of  the  people  to 
the  new  King  the  following  incident  will  serve. 
One  day  a  crier  was  sent  through  the  town 
to  announce  that  the  hour  had  come  when  the 
New  Israel,  under  the  leadership  of  its  King, 
should  go  forth  into  the  promised  land,  and  that 
all  should  make  themselves  ready  for  their 
departure.  As  some  ten  thousand  persons,  two 
thousand  men  and  eight  thousand  women,  it  is  said, 
were  assembled  on  the  uDomhof"  in  obedience 
to  the  summons,  Jan  appeared  in  full  regalia, 
accompanied  by  his  court,  and  announced  to 
the  multitude  that  the  hour  had  not  yet  come, 
that  he  had  only  wished  to  try  their  faith,  and 
that  he  begged  them  now  to  be  his  guests  at 
a  joyful  feast.  Benches  and  tables  were  hastily 
made  ready,  and  the  whole  concourse  sat  down 
to  the  rich  fare  provided.  The  King  himself, 
with  his  Queen,  and  his  court-functionaries 
served  the  people  with  their  own  hands.  As 
soon  as  the  feast  was  over,  Jan  rose  up  to 
address  the  people.  "  God,"  he  said,  "  had 
relieved  him  of  his  dignity  of  King  and  he  would 
now  abdicate."  Thereupon  the  ex-goldsmith, 
and  now  prophet,  Dusentschur,  in  his  turn  rose 
up  and  declared  that  God  had  revealed  to  him 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  229 

the  command  that  their  dear  brother,  Jan  of 
Leyden,  should  continue  King,  an  announcement 
which  was  accepted  with  acclamation  by  the 
people.  Thus  was  Jan  confirmed  in  his  office 
by  a  kind  of  popular  election.  Jan  now  announc- 
ed to  those  assembled  that  a  divine  revelation 
had  enjoined  him  to  send  forth  twenty-seven 
chosen  men  in  the  capacity  of  apostles.  Dusent- 
schur  read  the  names  and  the  places,  amongst 
others,  Soest,  Osnabriick,  Warendorf  and  Coes- 
feld.  The  apostles  immediately  departed  as 
ordered.  It  is  said  that  Jan  ended  this  feast 
by  the  execution  of  a  prisoner  with  his  own 
hand,  a  statement  that,  coming  as  it  does  from 
hostile  sources,  may  well  be  open  to  doubt. 

The  travesties  of  the  Catholic  cultus  continued 
at  intervals  throughout  the  whole  siege.  Grotesque 
effigies  of  the  Bishop,  hung  round  with  letters 
of  indulgence,  were  popular.  On  one  occasion, 
one  of  these  figures  was  mounted  on  an  old 
horse,  to  the  tail  of  which  a  large  parchment 
representing  the  agreement  entered  into  by  the 
Bishop  with  the  town  of  Miinster  on  February 
i4th,  1533,  was  attached,  and  the  animal  was 
then  driven  out  of  the  city  in  the  direction  of 
the  Bishop's  camp.  The  soldiers  hurried  up  to 


230  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

ascertain  who  the  intruder  was,  and  on  dis- 
covering the  hoax,  hewed  the  figure  in  pieces 
to  the  great  amusement  of  the  Anabaptist 
guards  on  the  wall.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
year  1534,  famine  began  to  make  itself  unmis- 
takably manifest.  The  duty  of  the  deacons  to 
provide  the  daily  meals  became  daily  more 
difficult.  Strong  measures  had  to  be  taken  to 
prevent  the  hoarding  up  of  provisions  by  private 
individuals ;  it  was  stringently  forbidden  to  bake 
or  brew  in  private  houses ;  the  millers  were 
prohibited  from  grinding  corn  for  private  persons. 
A  house  to  house  search  was  made  for  hidden 
food  or  drink,  and  concealment  of  the  necessaries 
of  life  was  visited  with  the  severest  penalties. 
The  hope  of  relief  from  the  brethren  outside 
in  the  other  towns  of  Westphalia,  and  indeed  as 
far  off  as  Friesland  and  Holland,  found  expression 
in  the  revelations  and  visions,  that  formed  part 
of  the  atmosphere  of  the  Anabaptist  world.  Many 
of  these  emanated  from  Jan  himself,  others  from 
the  other  prophets.  One  night,  we  are  told,  Jan 
ran  barefoot  through  the  streets  and  along  the 
wall,  crying:  "Israel,  rejoice,  thy  deliverance  is 
near !  "  Words  of  encouragement  from  their  King 
and  leader  always  infused  fresh  confidence  into 


THE  NE IV  ISRAEL  231 

the  impressionable  population.  Once  the  King 
actually  made  preparations  for  heading  a  sortie. 
He  had  all  available  sacks  in  the  town  brought 
together  into  the  hands  of  the  deacons,  prepara- 
tory to  taking  them  with  himself  and  followers, 
hoping  to  return  with  them  filled  with  corn  and 
flour  for  the  hungry  population.  A  rumour  as  to 
this  having  reached  the  camp  outside,  the  soldiers 
of  the  Bishop  were  not  slow  in  casting  jeers  at 
the  defenders  of  the  ramparts,  asking  why  Jan 
of  Leyden  delayed  coming.  He  should  only 
hurry,  they  said,  and  they  would  see  to  the 
filling  of  his  sacks  for  him.  But  Jan's  practical 
good  sense  kept  him  back  in  time  from  a  project 
that,  under  the  existing  conditions,  without  a 
relieving  force  to  co-operate  with  him,  would  have 
meant  certain  destruction. 

The  towers  of  the  churches  were  now  partially 
broken  down  and  used  as  platforms  for  the  planting 
of  ordnance.  The  "  Lambertikirche "  alone  of 
the  principal  churches  remained  untouched.  Its 
lofty  tower  was  used  as  the  chief  watchtower, 
from  which  an  alarm  was  blown  whenever  a 
movement  of  the  enemy  in  the  direction  of  the 
city  was  observed.  Some  smaller  ecclesiastical 
buildings  were  demolished  and  the  materials 


232  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

used  for  strengthening  the  fortifications.  By  the 
beginning  of  1535  all  the  churches,  streets  and 
public  places  were  renamed  so  as  to  obliterate 
all  memory  of  Catholic  times.  To  this  end  also, 
all  Catholic  festivals  and  observance  days  were 
done  away  with  as  such ;  the  distinction  between 
Sunday  and  week-day  was  likewise  abolished 
on  the  same  grounds.  Work  on  the  walls  and 
in  the  trenches,  and  in  collecting  and  carrying 
material  for  repairs  in  the  defensive  works, 
naturally  occupied  much  of  the  time  of  the  in- 
habitants. But  their  King  Jan  took  steps  to 
distract  them  as  far  as  possible  from  dwelling 
on  the  miseries  of  their  situation,  by  means  of 
amusement  and  instruction  combined  in  the  shape 
of  dramatic  representations.  For  this  purpose, 
the  choir  of  the  cathedral  was  transformed  into 
a  stage,  somewhat  after  the  manner  adopted  for 
the  old  Catholic  mystery-plays  of  the  earlier  Middle 
Ages.  Curtains  were  hung  right  across  the  nave, 
at  the  entrance  of  the  choir. 

Gresbeck  has  left  an  account  of  one  of  these 
Anabaptist  mystery-plays.  It  represented  the 
story  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus.  "They 
began  to  play,"  says  Gresbeck,  uand  played 
and  made  speech  one  with  the  other.  When 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  233 

the  rich  man  had  made  a  speech  with  Lazarus, 
three  pipers,  who  stood  by  the  stage,  played  a 
piece  in  three  parts.  Then  the  rich  man  spake 
again,  and  then  the  pipers  played  again,  and  so 
the  play  went  through  to  the  end.  At  the  last 
came  the  devils  and  did  fetch  the  rich  man, 
body  and  soul,  and  did  draw  him  behind  the 
curtain.  There  was  a  great  laughter  in  the 
cathedral  and  much  merry  talk."  (Gresbeck,  Be- 
rickt,  p.  1 68.)  In  the  above  we  have  an  illustra- 
tion again  of  the  powerful  influence  exercised  by 
tradition  and  the  intellectual  atmosphere  into 
which  we  have  been  born,  even  when  we  are 
with  our  conscious  will  engaged  in  a  bitter 
protest,  as  we  suppose,  against  that  tradition 
and  atmosphere.  Jan  of  Leyden  and  his  fol- 
lowers, so  far  as  their  conscious  endeavours 
were  concerned,  aimed  at  destroying  all  vestige 
of  the  hated  Catholic-Feudal  system  of  society, 
against  which  they  were  ostensibly  rebelling. 
Yet  strangely  enough,  as  it  might  seem,  they 
could  think  of  no  form  of  dramatic  representation 
more  appropriate  than  something  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  old  traditional  mystery-play 
so  familiar  to  the  mediaeval  mind.  Again,  the 
pomp  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  importance, 


234  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

attached  to  which  may  possibly  have  been 
suggested,  as  Kautsky  has  observed,  from 
frequent  readings  of  the  Johannine  Apocalypse, 
was  through  and  through  mediaeval  in  character. 
The  Middle  Ages  were  always  great  in  pageants, 
and  the  pageant-life  of  the  Middle  Ages  had 
never  attained  such  dimensions  or  such  magni- 
ficence as  it  did  when  they  were  nearing  their 
close  during  the  earlier  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Even  under  the  storm  and  stress  of 
siege  and  hunger  in  Miinster  in  1535,  we  see 
the  old  careless,  naive  and  joyous  life  of  mediaeval 
times  still  active.  The  true  puritanical  spirit, 
indirect  outcome  of  the  new  conditions  of  life 
then  indeed  arising,  but  not  as  yet  become 
dominant,  only  sporadically  asserted  itself.  The 
difference  is  marked  in  this  respect  between  the 
Anabaptists  of  Mianster  and  the  English  Puritans 
of  over  '  a  century  later.  So  true  is  the  com- 
monplace that  our  minds  run  in  grooves  and 
that  it  takes  a  long  time  before  we  can  free 
ourselves  from  our  old  habits  of  thought. 

But  in  spite  of  amusements,  in  spite  of  visions, 
in  spite  of  revelations  of  coming  help,  day  by 
day  as  the  new  year  1535  advanced,  the  terrible 
ravages  of  hunger  made  themselves  more  and 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  235 

more  felt.  At  the  same  time,  the  Bishop's  forces 
continued  to  draw  an  ever  tightening  cordon 
around  the  doomed  city.  All  possible  communi- 
cation with  the  outer  world  was  now  cut  off, 
and  the  hope  of  relief  from  outside  grew  daily 
fainter.  The  horses  were  now  slaughtered  for 
food.  With  the  first  indications  of  spring,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  cultivate  the  not  incon- 
siderable amount  of  garden  and  arable  land 
within  the  walls.  Miinster  is  even  to-day  a 
town  of  orchards  and  market-gardens.  The 
available  land  was  divided  into  lots  and  dis- 
tributed among  the  inhabitants  for  cultivation. 
But  the  result  did  not  answer  to  expectation. 
Jan  and  the  Preachers  unceasingly  exhorted  the 
people  to  regard  the  present  condition  of  famine 
in  the  light  of  a  fast  ordained  by  God,  which 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  Saints  to  observe  till  the 
time  of  feasting  should  come  again. 

Up  to  this  time  no  steps  had  been  taken  by 
the  authorities  to  prevent  people  leaving  the 
town.  The  forces  of  the  Anabaptists  had  been, 
moreover,  largely  recruited  by  fugitives  from  the 
Bishop's  camp.  The  King  now  resolved  that  it 
was  time  to  regulate  the  departures.  One  of 
the  Preachers,  therefore,  who  appears  to  have 


236  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

also  acted  as  public  crier,  was  told  off  to  announce 
throughout  the  town,  that  for  four  days  it  should 
remain  free  to  all  to  leave  if  they  pleased,  but 
that  after  the  expiration  of  that  time  all  those 
caught  attempting  to  escape  should  be  executed 
as  traitors.  During  the  four  days,  large  numbers 
of  men,  women  and  children  flocked  to  the 
Rathhaus  to  claim  the  promised  escort  to  the 
outer  ramparts.  It  was  a  terrible  alternative 
that  presented  itself  to  the  famished  inhabitants 
in  Miinster.  Death  from  hunger  within  the  walls, 
or  probable  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Bishop's 
mercenaries  without.  Almost  all  those  of  an  age 
to  bear  arms  were  seized  as  they  neared  the 
trenches  of  the  besiegers  and  summarily  put  to 
death.  Old  men,  women  and  children  were  left 
without  shelter  in  the  open  field.  The  Bishop 
sought  counsel  of  the  Archbishop  of  Koln  and 
the  Prince-Bishop  of  Cleves,  his  allies,  as  to  what 
course  he  should  pursue.  They  told  him  to  drive 
the  fugitives  back  into  the  town.  This  was  tried, 
but  they  unanimously  refused  to  move,  saying 
they  preferred  immediate  death  in  the  camp 
of  the  besiegers  to  death  by  starvation 
in  Miinster.  At  this,  these  unfortunate  half- 
starved  fugitives  were  arrested  and  the  epis- 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  237 

copal  monster  had  a  number  of  them  execut- 
ed; the  remainder,  mostly  women  and  children, 
being  interned  in  various  towns  of  the  bish- 
opric. 

Notwithstanding  famine,  and  siege,  the  faith 
of  the  leaders  and  of  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Miinster  seemed  to  be  little  affected.  The 
belief  in  the  ultimate  victory  over  the  whole 
world  of  the  millennial  kingdom  inaugurated  in 
Miinster  remained  for  the  most  part  unimpaired. 
But  Jan,  with  his  practical  sense,  knowing  that 
disaffection  existed  in  the  town  and  tended  to 
increase  with  the  growth  of  the  famine  and  the 

o 

apparent  hopelessness  of  the  situation,  bethought 
himself  of  a  plan  of  placing  the  defence  of  the 
gates  in  the  hands  of  persons  upon  whom  he 
could  thoroughly  rely.  Whether  he  had  any 
special  reasons  for  distrusting  any  of  the  existing 
defenders  we  know  not.  But  the  defence  of 
the  gates  was  obviously  a  matter  of  prime  im- 
portance for  the  safety  of  the  town.  It  only 
required  a  single  act  of  treachery  on  the  part 
of  the  commander  of  one  of  the  gates  for  the 
city  to  be  hopelessly  lost.  It  was  therefore 
only  natural  and  wise  that  such  a  post  of  special 
confidence  should  be  occupied  by  persons  of 


238  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

whose  fidelity  the  King  had  personal  assurance.  Ac- 
cordingly, under  the  pretext  of  choosing  betimes 
the  twelve  "  dukes,"  as  they  were  called,  or 
governors,  among  whom  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth  were  subsequently  to  be  divided,  subject 
to  the  headship  of  their  divinely-appointed 
King,  Jan  decided  to  carry  out  an  important 
plan  of  reorganisation  in  the  defence.  To  gain 
popular  support  for  the  measure  and  to  confer 
more  indisputable  authority  for  the  new  officers, 
it  was  determined  that  the  latter  should  be 
chosen  by  a  suffrage  of  the  Brethren.  On  the 
appointed  day,  therefore,  all  the  adult  inhabitants 
of  Miinster,  men  and  women,  were  ordered  to 
the  gate  belonging  to  the  particular  ward  of 
the  city  in  which  they  resided.  After  one  of  the 
preachers  had  here  held  a  service,  voting  papers 
were  distributed,  upon  which  each  person  was 
to  write  the  name  of  the  Brother  he  wished  to 
see  fill  the  office  of  "  duke."  This  being  done, 
all  the  voting  papers  were  collected  into  an 
urn  by  the  royal  councillor  who  directed  the 
proceeding  at  each  of  the  places  appointed.  An 
attendant  page  thrust  his  hand  into  the  urn, 
and  drew  out,  haphazard,  one  of  the  voting  papers 
which  he  handed  to  the  councillor.  The  latter 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  239 

then  read  out  the  name  supposed  to  be  written 
thereon,  the  bearer  of  which  he  thereupon  pro- 
claimed the  duke  appointed  to  take  over  the 
command  of  the  defence  at  the  particular  gate 
in  question.  The  reader  will  see  that  the  elec- 
tion was  not  by  majority-vote,  but  by  a  process 
purporting  to  be  a  kind  of  mixture  of  democracy 
and  chance,  or,  as  the  Anabaptists  doubtless 
believed  it,  divine  Providence.  It  has  been 
suggested,  not  without  reason,  that  the  name 
announced  by  the  councillor  who  was  functioning 
was  not  necessarily  the  one  that  was  written 
on  the  paper  handed  to  him  by  the  boy;  but 
one  that  had  been  previously  decided  upon  by 
Jan  and  his  trusted  councillors.  It  is,  in  fact, 
not  improbable  that  a  deception  of  this  kind 
was  practised,  but  if  so,  it  was  a  deception  for 
which  it  must  be  admitted  there  was  considerable 
excuse,  in  view  of  the  vital  importance  of  the 
issues  that  hung  upon  the  election.  An  inju- 
dicious choice  might  have  meant  the  speedy 
betrayal  of  the  town  and  all  within  it  to  the 
hordes  of  the  Bishop's  free-lances,  thirsting  as 
they  were  for  blood  and  plunder. 

The  proceeding  accomplished,  Jan  himself  on 
horseback,    attired  in  his  kingly  robes,  made  a 


240  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

tour  of  the  twelve  gates,  and  at  each  one, 
solemnly  and  with  a  ceremonial  customary  in 
the  New  Jerusalem  on  public  occasions,  inaugurat- 
ed the  newly  chosen  duke  in  the  office  to  which 
he  was  called — at  first  in  the  defence  of  Miinster 
and  later  as  vicegerent  of  the  King  of  Zion  in 
the  government  of  the  millennial  monarchy. 
This  was  followed  by  a  feast  at  which  all 
the  dukes  had  places  of  honour  with  the  King 
and  his  councillors.  Afterwards,  we  are  told, 
the  guests  danced  ueach  with  his  own  wife." 
The  proceedings  concluded  with  the  King  pre- 
senting each  duke  with  a  silken  band  embroidered 
with  the  most  costly  gold,  which  each  wore 
round  his  neck.  These  silken  bands  were  hung 
with  gold  and  silver  coins.  The  election  of 
the  dukes  meant  a  complete  change  in  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  officers  at  each  gate.  Every  duke 
chose  for  himself  a  lieutenant  to  act  as  his 
representative.  The  latter  in  his  turn  chose  a 
quartermaster.  These  three  were  supreme  at 
their  own  gate  and  the  section  of  the  defensive 
works  allotted  to  it. 

But  no  reorganisation  of  the  defence  could 
finally  save  the  city.  Famine  and  the  superior 
force  of  the  besiegers  rendered  a  prolonged 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  241 

resistance  impossible.  The  numbers  in  the  town 
were  gradually  reduced  by  starvation  and  the 
diseases  accompanying  want  of  food,  and  by 
flight,  for  in  the  last  part  of  the  siege  this 
happened  daily.  The  usual  state  of  things  in 
a  besieged  and  hunger-stricken  city  obtained  in 
Miinster.  According  to  Gresbeck  everything 
that  had  life  was  eaten,  dogs,  cats,  rats,  mice, 
etc.  Dark  suggestions  of  cannibalism  were  as 
usual  not  wanting,  but  Gresbeck  is  honest  enough 
to  admit  that  he  never  saw  any  evidence  of 
the  latter.  In  the  course  of  the  month  of  May, 
large  numbers  of  women  left  the  city  together 
with  nearly  all  the  children,  amongst  them  four- 
teen l  out  of  the  fifteen  wives  of  Jan  of  Leyden, 
the  one  remaining  being  the  Queen  and  late 
widow  of  Matthys.  It  was  necessary  to  limit 
the  population  as  far  as  possible  to  those  engag- 
ed in  the  work  of  the  defence.  Even  then  the 
suffering  of  the  city  was  great  enough. 

It  is  necessary  now  to  say  a  few  words  anent 
the  charge  of  bloodthirstiness  commonly  brought 
by  historians  against  the  Miinster  Anabaptists. 

1  This  statement  by  a  hostile  contemporary  witness  disposes 
of  the  story  of  the  execution  by  Jan  of  one  of  these  women, 
Elisabetha  Wandscherer,  for  wishing  to  leave  the  town. 

16 


242  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The  charge  is  based  on  the  fact  of  sundry  ex- 
ecutions having  taken  place  in  the  city  during 
the  siege.  As  usual,  reactionaries  have  set  up 
for  the  Anabaptists  of  MiAnster,  conducting  the 
defence  of  a  beleaguered  town  in  the  1 6th  cen- 
tury and  at  death-grips  with  a  pitiless  enemy, 
a  supererogatory  standard  of  mildness  and 
humanity,  which  the  governing  classes  they 
champion  would  not  under  normal  conditions 
attempt  to  attain.  When,  of  course,  they  can 
show  that  the  Mtinsterites  did  not  come  up  to 
it,  they  affect  to  be  staggered  with  horror.  The 
Anabaptists  had  arrived  at  the  supreme  power 
in  Miinster  in  February,  1534,  in  a  perfectly 
legal  manner.  Franz  von  Waldeck  had  there- 
upon made  war  against  the  city,  at  the  same 
time  continuously  murdering  in  cold  blood  any 
Anabaptists  that  fell  into  his  hands.  A  portion 
of  this  sect — which,  as  we  have  seen  in  former 
chapters  of  this  work,  notwithstanding  its  doc- 
trine of  non-resistance  to  evil  consistently  carried 
out  and  hence  its  ultra-peaceable  character,  had 
been  for  years  the  victim  of  the  most  fiendish 
persecution — had  at  length  resolved  upon  vigo- 
rous measures  of  self-defence,  and  as  fortune 
would  have  it,  had  come  into  possession  of  a 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  243 

strongly  fortified  town  against  which  war  had 
immediately  been  levied  by  its  persecutors  as 
representing  the  existing  order  of  society.  All 
knew  that  it  was  a  case  of  life  and  death  and 
that  the  capture  of  the  city  meant  their  exter- 
mination. Under  these  circumstances,  no  reason- 
able person  can  wonder  that  measures  of  ex- 
ceptional severity  had  to  be  adopted  and  carried 
out  against  traitors  and  all  whose  acts  militated 
against  the  safety  of  the  town.  Executions  there 
undoubtedly  were  within  the  walls  of  Minister 
at  the  hands  of  the  Anabaptist  authorities.  Of 
the  circumstances  of  most  of  these  we  are 
ignorant,  but  as  to  those  cases  of  which  we 
have  information,  afforded  it  must  be  remem- 
bered exclusively  by  hostile  witnesses,  it  is 
plain  that  we  have  to  do  with  either  acts  of 
overt  treachery  or  at  least  such  as  seriously 
menaced  order  within  the  town  itself,  on  the 
maintenance  of  which  the  general  safety  so 
much  depended.  These  were  certainly  inflicted 
without  regard  to  rank  or  sex,  for  the  fol- 

o 

lowers  of  Jan  of  Leyden  were  no  respecters 
of  persons. 

The     executions,    unfortunately,    though    not 
unnaturally,    increased   as   the  famine  increased 


244  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  the  hope  of  succour  from  without  died  away. 
As  might  be  expected,  the  temptation  to  half- 
concealed  disaffection  and  to  open  treachery 
rose  with  the  conditions  mentioned.  During  the 
last  month  of  the  siege  the  executions  were 
most  numerous,  although  the  incredible  state- 
ment of  one  account,  that  on  June  3rd  fifty-two 
persons  suffered,  may  well  be  doubted.  In  one 
respect,  certainly,  even  in  this  connection,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  much  maligned  sec- 
taries showed  themselves  superior  to  their  time. 
We  do  not  hear  of  the  torture  being  inflicted 
before  the  condemnation,  as  was  usually  the 
case  elsewhere  at  that  period,  whilst  the  modes 
of  death  themselves  were  exclusively  those  sanc- 
tioned by  the  conscience  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  only  forms  of  execution  practised  by 
the  Anabaptists  in  Miinster  were  hanging,  shoot- 
ing, and  beheading.  Partisans  of  the  dominant 
classes  of  that  age  may  well  be  invited  to  com- 
pare the,  for  the  period,  comparatively  humane 
conduct  of  the  Anabaptists  with  the  bestial 
blood-lust  of  their  enemies. 

It  remains  to  sum  up  briefly  the  nature  of 
the  institutions  of  the  New  Israel  before  con- 
cluding the  present  chapter.  Of  these  the  most 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  245 

notorious  are  the  so-called  communism  that 
was  established  and  the  new  marriage  law, 
permitting,  and  in  some  cases  even  enjoining, 
polygamy  for  the  saints.  As  we  have  seen  in 
an  earlier  chapter,  communism  in  a  mediaeval 
sense  (that  is,  communism  in  the  economic 
product  as  distinguished  from  communism  in 
the  means  of  production)  formed  an  under- 
current, so  to  say,  in  all  the  forms  of  Anabap- 
tism  and  was  in  various  parts  a  recognised  insti- 
tution long  before  Jan  Bockelson  and  the  leaders 
of  Miinster  appeared  upon  the  scene.  Free 
views  of  the  marriage  relation  were,  as  we  have 
seen  also,  occasionally  to  be  met  with  among 
the  earlier  adherents  of  the  movement.  But, 
in  both  cases,  the  practical  application  of  these 
doctrines  was  primarily  determined  by  the 
peculiar  local  conditions  obtaining  in  Miinster 
during  the  siege.  The  communism,  for  example, 
was  never  complete,  but  was  only,  as  Kautsky 
has  pointed  out,  carried  as  far  as  the  exigencies 
of  the  moment  rendered  it  desirable.  The  con- 
fiscation of  private  property  for  the  common- 
weal did  not,  for  a  long  time,  extend  beyond 
money  and  the  precious  metals,  a  plentiful  supply 
of  which  was  necessary  for  defraying  the  expenses 


246  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  sending  out  missionaries,  and  otherwise  main- 
taining intercourse,  such  as  it  was,  with  the 
outer  world,  as  well  as  for  inducing  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  Bishop's  free-lances  to  desert 
and  enter  the  service  of  the  defence. 

Later  on,  as  famine  began  to  make  itself  felt, 
and  clothes  began  to  wear  out,  private  food 
stores,  together  with  superfluous  wardrobes, 
were  also  confiscated  for  the  general  use.  The 
wealth  of  the  religious  houses,  a  by  no  means 
inconsiderable  factor  in  Miinster,  was  of  course 
secularised  or  "municipalised"  when  they  were 
abolished  by  the  new  order  of  things,  after  which, 
as  generally  occurred,  their  inmates  abandoned 
them  of  their  own  accord  to  join  the  Anabap- 
tist community.  The  same  happened  to  the 
goods  of  hostile  burghers  who  had  fled.  It  is 
possible  also  that  guild-property  as  such  was 
regarded  as  available  for  public  purposes. 

How  far  the  common  meals  started  at  an 
early  period  of  the  siege  extended  to  all  the 
inhabitants  is  doubtful ;  that  the  whole  community 
on  special  occasions  sat  down  to  a  common 
meal  in  the  open  air  is  clear.  But  various 
indications  would  seem  to  show  that,  as  regards 
every-day  life,  the  public  meals  were  mainly 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  247 

confined  to  those  actively  engaged  on  the  walls 
and  in  the  trenches,  the  houses  set  apart  for 
them  being  situated  as  close  as  possible  to  the 
gates.  In  these  common  meals  women  as  well 
as  men  took  part,  for  the  Anabaptist  women 
were  amongst  the  most  active  in  the  work  of 
defence.  It  is  plain  that  the  private  household, 
with  the  private  meals  held  therein,  was  not 
abolished  as  an  institution.  This  comes  out  in 
the  matter  of  the  confiscation  of  the  private 
food  stores.  We  hear  also  of  rations  being 
served  out  to  private  households.  The  common 
table  of  each  town- ward  was,  of  course,  open 
to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  ward,  but  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  there  was  any 
compulsion  as  to  attendance.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  during  the  last  few  months  of 
the  siege,  when  food  was  becoming  scarce, 
little  was  obtainable  except  at  the  public  tables. 
Private  property  and  even  inheritance  was 
never,  as  such,  formally  abolished  in  Miinster. 
So  much  is  evident  by  the  regulations  drawn 
up  at  various  times  during  the  siege,  which 
have  been  preserved  mainly  by  the  hostile 
witness  Kerssenbroick.  One  of  these,  the  work 
of  the  twelve  Elders,  has  it :  "  Should  any  man, 


248  1VSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

by  the  providence  of  God,  be  shot  or  other- 
wise fall  asleep  in  the  Lord,  none  shall  venture 
to  keep  such  one's  goods  for  himself,  whether 
arms,  garments,  or  whatsoever  they  may  be ; 
but  he  shall  bring  it  before  the  sword-bearer, 
Knipperdollinck,  who  shall  lay  it  before  the 
Elders  to  the  end  that  by  them  it  may  be 
adjudged  to  the  true  heirs."  Again,  one  of  a 
series  of  twenty-four  articles  drawn  up  by  Jan 
of  Leyden  in  January,  1535,  provides  that 
whilst  no  one  of  his  own  initiative  shall  appro- 
priate booty  captured  from  the  enemy,  but  shall 
surrender  it  to  the  proper  authorities,  yet  the 
latter  may  give  him  a  portion  of  it,  which  he 
is  free  to  use  as  he  likes.  Other  articles  of 
this  code  whilst  strictly  forbidding  buying  or 
selling,  also  enjoin  fair  dealings  in  the  exchange 
and  barter  that  had  taken  its  place.  A  curious 
regulation  is  the  appointment  of  certain  craftsmen, 
who  had  to  be  exempt  from  the  work  of  defence 
in  order  that  they  might  labour  at  their  craft  for 
the  common  benefit  of  the  new  house  of  Israel. 
Thus  two  master-shoemakers,  with  their  six 
journeymen,  were  to  provide  shoes  for  all  the 
community.  In  a  similar  way,  tailors  were  ap- 
poined,  and  blacksmiths  to  make — keys!  The 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  249 

allusions  to  masters  and  journeymen  in  these 
regulations  indicate  that  the  Anabaptists'  com- 
munism, as  practised  in  Miinster,  involved  no 
serious  breach  with  the  then  current  conditions 
of  industrial  life.  The  disciples  of  Matthys  and 
Bockelson,  although  doubtless  in  theory  com- 
munists in  the  mediaeval  sense  of  the  word, 
were  unable  under  the  conditions  of  a  beleaguer- 
ed town,  where  everything  was  subordinate  to 
the  emergencies  of  the  moment,  to  undertake 
any  systematic  application  of  their  doctrines. 

As  regards  the  question  of  the  sexual  arrange- 
ments of  the  Saints  in  Miinster,  it  is  only  fair 
to  take  into  account  the  doctrines  concerning 
marriage  contained  in  the  "  Bekenntniss  des 
Globens  und  Lebens  der  gemein  Criste  zu 
Miinster"  where,  in  the  section  dealing  with 
marriage,  the  conventional  Christian  doctrine 
on  the  subject  is  emphasized  to  the  fullest 
extent.  Marriage  is  proclaimed,  to  be  a  sacra- 
ment of  the  highest  order,  typical  of  Christ  and 
the  Church,  etc.,  with  a  due  wealth  of  quotations 
from  the  New  Testament.  At  the  same  time, 
the  charges  of  debauchery  that  had  been  brought 
against  the  Saints  by  their  enemies  are  in- 
dignantly repudiated  as  foul  slanders.  Speaking 


250  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  this,  the  apology  goes  on  to  say :  u  We  leave 
vengeance  to  God,  for  know  we  not  that  how 
long  soever  we  are  fought  against  with  blas- 
phemous lies  and  with  might,  and  the  godless 
pour  out  the  measure  of  their  evil  doing,  yea, 
even  though  we  suffer  according  to  the  flesh, 
yet  shall  the  truth  conquer  in  our  little  con- 
gregation, as  Christ  saith,  Luke  XII :  Fear  not, 
little  flock,  for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure 
to  give  you  the  kingdom." 

Everything  points  to  the  fact  that  originally 
the  Minister  Anabaptists,  like  the  enormous 
majority  of  their  co-religionists  elsewhere,  pro- 
fessed and  practised  asceticism  in  sexual  as  in 
other  matters.  The  modification  that  subse- 
quently took  place  was  of  a  peculiar  character. 
Had  it  been  in  the  direction  of  a  community 
of  wives  or  of  free  love,  it  would  have  had  its 
parallel  in  certain  previous  phases  of  mediaeval 
Christian  communism,  for  instance,  the  "  Brethren 
and  Sisters  of  the  Free  Spirit,"  the  heretical 
Hussite  sect  of  the  "  Adamites,"  etc.  But  as  it 
is,  it  stands  unique  in  the  history  of  mediaeval 
socio-religious  movements.  The  contract,  or 
sacrament,  as  it  was  conceived,  of  marriage, 
once  entered  upon,  was  no  less  sacred  and 


THE  NE  W  ISRA  EL.  251 

binding  after  the  introduction  of  polygamy,  than 
it  had  been  under  the  previous  monogamy. 
The  difference  consisted  solely  in  the  lawfulness 
of  having  more  wives  than  one.  In  the  twenty- 
eight  articles,  promulgated  by  Jan  of  Leyden, 
in  January,  1535,  months  after  polygamy  had 
been  introduced,  we  find  the  same  severity 
against  adultery  and  all  forms  of  illicit  sexual 
intercourse  as  in  the  edict  of  the  twelve  Elders 
already  alluded  to,  which  was  enacted  before 
the  introduction  of  the  new  marriage  system. 
That  marriages  concluded  before  re-baptism 
should  be  regarded  as  null  and  void  was  only 
a  logical  deduction  from  the  idea  of  a  new  life 
entered  into  by  joining  the  community  of  the 
Saints.  The  explanation  of  the  polygamy  of 
the  Mlinsterites  is  undoubtedly  the  one  suggested 
in  an  earlier  part  of  the  present  chapter. 

On  the  town  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
Anabaptists,  a  large  emigration  of  the  wealthy 
inhabitants  took  place,  as  we  know.  But  it  was 
mainly  the  master  of  the  house  who  departed, 
in  these  cases,  with  perhaps  such  of  his  sons 
as  were  grown  up,  leaving  behind  the  female 
section  of  the  household,  as  a  rule  a  tolerably 
large  one  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  average 


252    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 


population  of  the  town  of  Miinster  in  those  times 
is  estimated  at  fifteen  thousand.  The  number 
present  within  the  walls  at  any  time  during  the 
siege  could  not  have  exceeded,  according  to  all 
accounts,  from  twelve  to  thirteen  thousand,  whilst 
some  statements  make  it  less.  The  number  of 
the  male  inhabitants  is  reckoned  by  Gresbeck 
at  two  thousand,  of  which  fifteen  hundred  are 
mentioned  as  capable  of  bearing  arms.  There 
were,  of  course,  losses  and  gains  in  the  adult 
male  population — losses  from  military  operations 
and  gains  from  prisoners  brought  in,  and  from 
deserters  from  the  Bishop's  camp,  who  joined 
the  defenders.  Allowing  for  this,  however,  the 
difference  in  the  numerical  proportion  of  women 
to  men  could  not  have  been  less  than  three  or 
four  to  one  and  was  probably  much  more. 
Given  such  a  state  of  things,  with  an  Anabaptist 
code  of  morals  prevailing  and  strictly  enforced 
in  a  town  for  months  cut  off  from  all  intercourse 
with  the  outer  world,  any  reasonable  man  can 
see  that  an  untenable  situation  from  the  sexual 
point  of  view  must  be  created,  which  could  only 
be  remedied  either  by  a  serious  relaxation  of 
the  sexual  code  itself,  or  else  by  an  enlargement 
of  the  moral  and  religious  sanctions  as  regards 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  253 

marriage.     The  latter  was  the  course  chosen  by 
Jan    of  Leyden  and  his  colleagues.     An  almost 
exclusive    study  of  the  Bible  and  the  dominant 
idea    that    absorbed    the    Anabaptists    of  living 
over  again  the  life  of  the  Old  Testament  Israel, 
as   they   conceived  it,  rendered  the  notion  of  a 
plurality    of  wives   plausible   by    its  accordance 
with    the    household   of   the   patriarchal  society 
depicted  in  the  Pentateuch.     It  may  be  true  that 
Jan  Matthys  probably,  and  certainly  Jan  Bockel- 
son,    did    not    in    all    respects    share   the  ultra- 
ascetic  views  of  some  amongst  the  Anabaptists, 
any    more   than   they   shared   the    belief  in  the 
doctrine    of  non-resistance    so    prevalent  in  the 
sect ;    but    the  evidence  shows  that  even  these 
leaders    accepted  the  strict  doctrines  on  sexual 
morality     general    among    the    Brethren.     The 
biblical-patriarchal    view    taken  of  the  marriage 
relation  is  further  shown  by  the  authority  vested 
in    the   husband    over   his  wives  and  household 
generally.     This  point  of  view  comes  out  strongly 
in  a  pamphlet  published  by  Rothmann  in  October, 
1534,  as  spokesman  of  the  Mlinster  Saints. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  by  the  conventional 
historian,  who  overflows  with  indignation  at  the 
wickedness  of  the  Miinsterites  in  instituting  poly- 


254  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

gamy,  that  such  accredited  representatives  of 
orthodox  Protestant  respectability  as  Luther  and 
Melanchthon  had  declared  polygamy  to  be  not 
contrary  to  Christianity.  This,  it  is  true,  was 
said  by  the  distinguished  "reformers"  in  ques- 
tion in  order  to  curry  favour  with  Henry  VIII. 
of  England  and  the  Landgraf  of  Hesse  respect- 
ively, and  they,  together  with  their  patrons, 
would  have  wished  doubtless  to  keep  it,  as 
Kautsky  has  suggested,  as  a  reserve  doctrine 
for  the  convenience  of  the  great  ones  of  the 
earth  on  emergency.  But  their  arguments  which 
showed  that,  whilst  polygamy  was  avowedly 
permitted  by  the  Mosaic  law,  it  had  never  been 
forbidden  by  any  precept  or  injunction  of  Christ 
or  the  Apostles,  must,  to  the  Anabaptist  mind, 
have  held  equally  good  when  applied  in  a 
democratic  sense. 

The  ground  of  the  innovation  introduced  by 
the  prophets  and  preachers  of  Miinster,  it  must, 
moreover,  not  be  forgotten,  was  economic  as 
well  as  sexual.  Large  numbers  of  women  had 
been  left  deserted  in  the  town  and  had  to  be 
protected  and  provided  for  by  the  new  regula- 
tion. All  such  women  came  into  the  household 
of  one  of  the  Brethren.  In  fact,  it  would  seem 


THE  NEW  ISRAEL.  255 

that  there  were  a  certain  number  among  the 
so-called  wives  under  the  new  ordinance  who 
were  such  in  name  only  and  for  whom  the  new 
relation  was  avowedly  merely  one  of  protectional 
maintenance.  For  the  original  edict,  it  must  be 
remembered,  provided  that  no  woman,  old  or 
young,  should  remain  outside  the  marital  rela- 
tion, although  she  was  free  to  choose  the  man 
she  would  have.  The  original  edict,  however, 
did  not  remain  in  full  force,  being  modified 
more  than  once.  The  domestic  disturbances 
caused  by  the  new  arrangements,  which  were 
first  met  by  the  imprisonment  of  the  recalcitrant 
women  in  one  of  the  evacuated  religious  houses 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  even  in  two  or 
three  cases,  it  is  stated,  by  executions,  were 
later  on  dealt  with  by  a  liberal  application  of 
a  divorce  law,  which  had  been  enacted  to  this 
end.  Towards  the  close  of  the  siege,  the  major- 
ity of  the  female  population  had  left  the  town. 
In  concluding  this  chapter,  we  must  once 
more  repeat  that,  in  considering  the  conduct  of 
the  Anabaptist  authorities  during  their  lease  of 
power  in  Mlinster,  it  is  above  all  things  neces- 
sary to  remember  the  altogether  exceptional 
conditions  with  which  they  were  confronted. 


256  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Miinster  was  from  beginning  to  end  a  beleaguered 
town,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  cut  off 
almost  completely  from  all  communication  with 
the  outer  world;  the  population  was  excep- 
tionally disproportioned  as  regards  the  sexes, 
and  was  composed,  besides,  largely  of  heteroge- 
neous elements  from  various  quarters,  united 
only  in  the  one  faith.  Last,  but  not  least,  it 
was  not  even  an  ordinary  siege  that  was  in 
question,  but  one  which  all  knew  to  mean 
victory  or  the  most  terrible  of  deaths. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    PROPAGANDA   OUTSIDE    MUNSTER. 

ANABAPTISM  outside  Miinster  continued  to  make 
rapid  progress  during  the  siege.  It  is  true  that 
there  was  a  continuance  of  the  two  cross-currents 
characterising  the  movement  throughout  the 
north-western  territories,  that  of  the  earlier 
Hoffmannites,  or  Melchiorites,  who  still  adhered 
to  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance,  and  that  of 
Matthys  and  Bockelson,  which  not  merely  conced- 
ed the  right  of  self-defence,  but  proclaimed 
that  the  millennial  kingdom  was  to  be  establish- 
ed by  the  sword  of  the  Saints  themselves. 
From  the  spring  of  1534  the  latter  had,  however, 
obtained  for  the  nonce  a  decisive  predominance. 
The  acquisition  of  Munster  by  the  movement 
was  the  turning-point.  But  the  prophets  at  the 
head  of  affairs  in  Munster  were  by  no  means 
behind-hand  in  missionary  zeal.  Not  content 
to  let  things  take  their  course,  they  at  once 
began  sending  out  agitators  throughout  West- 
phalia, the  Netherlands  and  the  Lower  Rhine 

17 


258  XISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

generally.  In  February  1534,  Heinrich  Roll  and 
Jakob  von  Osnabriick  went  forth.  Their  main 
object  in  this  case  was  to  induce  the  Brethren 
to  come  to  Mlinster,  alleging  that  all  Christians 
who  entered  Miinster  would  have  houses  and 
beds  placed  at  their  disposal,  that  if  private 
house-accommodation  should  not  suffice,  room 
would  be  found  for  them  in  the  dispossessed 
religious  houses.  They  predicted  a  terrible 
vengeance  on  the  godless  before  Easter,  and 
that  the  tenth  man  should  not  remain  alive 
except  in  Miinster  itself,  which,  they  said,  was 
the  city  of  the  Lord  and  the  New  Jerusalem, 
where  the  Lord  would  provide  for  his  own  and 
all  should  have  enough.  Jakob,  however,  a 
hoofsmith  by  trade,  was  soon  arrested  and 
brought  to  Diisseldorf. 

Numbers  of  letters  were  also  sent  out  from 
those  who  joined  the  Miinster  community  to 
relations  and  friends,  urging  them  to  repent 
of  their  sins  and  come  into  the  fold  of  the 
Saints.  Rothmann  himself  wrote  enthusiastically 
to  his  friend  Heinrich  von  Tongern,  stating 
that  all  the  things  predicted  by  the  prophets 
were  being  fulfilled.  Heinrich  was  to  persuade 
all  he  could  to  come  and  bring  all  their  gold 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  259 

and  silver  with  them.  Manifestoes  of  a  general 
character  were  also  not  wanting,  one  of  these, 
(quoted  by  Keller,  "  Wiedertdufer"  p.  148) 
after  urging  the  commandment  of  the  prophets 
that  all  should  rise  up  and  join  the  Saints  in 
the  New  Jerusalem,  proceeds :  u  Let  none 
concern  themselves  as  to  husband  or  wife  that 
are  unbelieving,  neither  shall  ye  take  such  with 
you,  nor  unbelieving  children  who  are  dis- 
obedient and  not  under  the  rod,  for  such  profit 
naught  in  the  congregation  of  God."  After 
enjoining  those  who  would  come  that  they 
should  encumber  themselves  with  nothing  save 
such  money,  clothes  and  food  as  were  necessary 
for  the  journey,  together  with  such  arms  as 
they  might  possess,  the  author  of  this  appeal, 
who  signs  himself  uEmanuel,"  concludes : 
"Come  all  together  a  half  mile  from  Hazelt 
at  the  Berg  Kloster  on  the  24th  day  of  March, 
towards  mid-day.  Be  prudent  in  all  things!  Ye 
shall  not  come  before  the  day  named,  but  also 
not  later,  nor  shall  anyone  be  tarried  for  after 
the  time  appointed.  Let  none  neglect  to  come. 
If  any  remain  behind,  I  will  be  guiltless  of  his 
blood."  The  manifesto  entitled  u  Confessions 
of  both  Sacraments,"  issued  in  October,  1533, 


260  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

by  Rothmann  and  the  other  preachers,  was  also 
widely  circulated  in  the  neighbouring  territory 
during  the  ensuing  years. 

But  more  important  than  this  was  the  pamphlet 
or  small  book,  published  by  Rothmann  a  year 
later,  in  October,  1534,  entitled  "  Restitution, 
or  the  Setting  up  anew  of  just  and  wholesome 
Christian  Doctrine^,  Faith  and  Life."  The  world, 
declares  Rothmann,  has  fallen  from  the  truth, 
in  that  it  has  been  misled  by  the  papacy  and 
by  the  so-called  Evangelical  teachers,  but  the 
time  is  at  hand  when  Christ  shall  restore  the 
world  lost  in  sin,  and  this  restitution  or  restora- 
tion of  the  world  shall  take  place  by  means 
of  the  lowly  and  unlearned.  "  Look  therefore," 
he  exclaims,  u  at  that  which  was  begun  by  Erasmus, 
Luther  and  Zwingli,  but  behold  in  Melchior,  Jan 
Matthys,  and  here  in  our  brother  Jan  of  Leyden, 
in  them  who  are  quite  unlearned,  as  this  world 
counts  learning,  the  truth  has  been  gloriously 
made  manifest."  In  this  work,  which  may  be 
taken  as  an  official  pronouncement  of  the  views 
of  the  Munster  prophets  and  their  followers, 
Rothmann  proceeds,  after  expounding  the  doc- 
trines of  Anabaptism,  to  justify  the  ordinances 
the  prophets  had  issued  for  the  actual  govern- 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  261 

ment  of  the  new  house  of  Israel.  The  Old 
Testament  is  represented  as  in  no  wise  superseded, 
all  its  institutions  remaining  in  their  full  force, 
as  ideal  forms  of  government  and  society,  as 
much  as  ever.  Christ  is  represented  as  King 
of  Israel  and  of  the  whole  world  in  a  literal 
sense.  Three  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  some- 
what easy  task  of  justifying  polygamy  from 
Holy  Writ.  Much  space  is  devoted  to  refut- 
ing the  dogmas  of  the  hated  u  Evangelicals " 
followers  of  Luther  and  Zwingli — justification 
by  faith  alone,  predestination,  etc.,  etc.  Other 
chapters  expound  and  justify,  in  the  usual  way 
by  biblical  quotation,  the  doctrine  of  the  com- 
munity of  goods.  Others  again,  more  immedi- 
ately important  than  all,  emphasize  the  duty 
of  the  Saints  to  destroy  the  godless  with  the 
sword. 

The  book  had  indeed  for  its  main  object,  to 
move  the  outside  brethren  to  organise  themselves 
for  the  relief  of  Munster.  As  a  further  inducement 
to  this  end,  the  joys  of  the  people  of  God  in 
the  New  Jerusalem  are  described.  Thus  in 
Chapter  XII.  we  read :  "  Not  alone  have  we  placed 
our  goods  in  the  hands  of  the  deacons  and 
lived  thereon  according  to  our  need,  but  with 

O 


262  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

one  heart  and  one  mind  do  we  praise  God  in 
Christ  and  are  well  disposed  to  do  each  other 
all  manner  of  service."  "All  therefore  which 
had  heretofore  served  to  self-seeking  and  to 
possession,  such  as  buying  and  selling,  labouring 
to  procure  money,  due  or  usury,  even  eating 
and  drinking  with  the  unbelieving,  oppressing 
the  poor,  that  is  the  using  our  brethren  and  our 
neighbours  that  they  shall  work  for  us,  that 
thereby  we  may  fatten  ourselves  on  their  labour 
— all  these  things  and  what  further  might  destroy 
the  love  between  us,  in  the  love  of  Christ  and 
the  brethren,  is  quite  fallen  out  of  use  by  us, 
and,  as  we  know,  God  shall  utterly  root  out 
all  such  abominations.  Therefore  will  we  rather 
go  to  our  death  than  again  return  thereunto, 
for  we  know  that  with  such  sacrifices  the  Lord 
is  well-pleased.  Know  ye  that  no  Christian  or 
saint  may  please  God  who  doth  not  in  this  wise 
hold  all  things  in  common,  or  at  the  least  is  in 
his  heart  well-disposed  to  do  so."  The  conclusion 
treats  of  the  wonders  wrought  by  God  in  the 
defence  of  Munster  already,  and  winds  up  with 
an  exhortation  to  the  brethren  to  gird  on  the 
sword  and  undertake  forthwith  the  glorious  work 
of  the  final  deliverance  of  the  New  Zion. 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  263 

The  foregoing  book  was  followed,  at  an  interval 
of  two  months  by  another  smaller  pamphlet 
known  as  uThe  little  book  of  Vengeance,"  which 
appeared  in  December  1534.  This  was  also 
from  the  pen  of  Rothmann.  Vengeance,  it  says, 
is  at  hand  and  will  soon  burst  upon  the  powers 
of  this  world.  After  it  is  accomplished  shall 
appear  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth. 
"Dear  brethren,  the  time  of  vengeance  hath 
come  upon  us,  God  hath  raised  up  the  promised 
David  and  armed  him  to  vengeance  and  punish- 
ment on  Babylon  with  its  people.  Therefore, 
dear  brethren,  arm  yourselves  to  the  battle,  not 
alone  with  the  apostle's  weapons  of  patience  in 
suffering,  but  also  with  the  glorious  armour  of 
David,  to  vengeance,  to  the  end  that  ye  may, 
with  God's  power  and  help,  utterly  root  out  the 
might  of  Babylon  and  all  the  godless  world." 
The  pamphlet  ends:  "Look  to  it,  therefore, 
dear  brethren,  that  ye  hasten  to  lay  hold  on  this 
matter  with  earnestness  and  that  ye  betake 
yourselves  in  such  great  numbers  as  in  your  . 
power  lies  to  come  under  the  banner  of  God. 
God,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  awaken  in  your 
hearts  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  arm  you  and 
His  whole  Israel  according  to  His  will,  to  His 


264  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

praise   and   to   the    increase    of   His    Kingdom. 
Amen." 

Urbanus  Rhegius  answered  the  Anabaptists' 
literature  in  a  work  which  he  probably  wrote  at 
the  end  of  1534,  and  which  was  directly  intended 
to  counteract  the  spread  of  the  propaganda  in 
Osnabriick,  where  matters  were  beginning  at 
this  time  to  look  serious.  It  is  entitled  "  De 
Restittone  Regni  Israehtici"  and  pretends  to 
refute  Anabaptism  in  a  hundred  and  five  articles 
or  theses.  Amongst  other  things  Urbanus  charac- 
terises as  "a  foolish  and  godless  fable,"  that 
hitherto  had  been  the  time  of  endurance,  but 
that  now  was  the  time  of  vengeance.  "For," 
says  he,  "  naught  but  dreams  of  such  prophets 
and  naught  but  a  chatter  contradicting  the  Scrip- 
tures are  the  three  worlds,  which  they  have 
divised  to  the  end  that  they  might  establish 
their  error,  and  of  which  the  first  was  the  age 
of  sin  from  the  creation  of  the  world  until  the 
flood,  the  second  the  age  of  persecution  and 
the  Cross  until  our  time,  and  the  third  the  age 
of  restitution  and  vengeance,  in  which  all  the 
godless  are  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Anabaptists 
and  a  bodily  kingdom  of  Christ  established 
by  them.  This  is  an  invention  of  the  Devil  to 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER,  265 


tear  the  sword  from  the  hands  of  the  Authority 
set  up  by  God,"  etc.  (Bouterwek,  I.  pp.  43-48.) 
It  is  doubtful  whether  this  work,  to  which 
Luther  contributed  a  foreword,  had  the  effect  of 
converting  a  single  Anabaptist  from  the  error 
of  his  ways,  although  doubtless  the  congregation 
of  the  Lutheran  faithful  derived  considerable 
edification  from  the  learned  theologian's  confident 
refutation  of  the  enemy. 

Already  early  in  the  year  1534  various  dis- 
tricts of  Holland  were  strongly  permeated  with 
Anabaptism.  Amsterdam  was  regarded  by  the 
Anabaptist  saints  as  the  centre  of  their  creed 
in  the  Netherland  countries,  but  Leyden,  the 
Hague,  Haarlem,  and  other  places  had  con- 
siderable numbers  of  brethren  within  their  walls. 
Deventer  especially  distinguished  itself  as  the 
hope  of  the  "  Children  of  God,"  the  Biirger- 
meister  himself  having  joined  the  sectaries.  In 
Brabant,  it  is  stated  in  a  letter  addressed  from 
Antwerp  to  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  there  was 
scarcely  a  village  or  town  where  the  torch  of 
insurrection  did  not  secretly  glow.  It  is  signi- 
ficant that  the  writer  attributes  the  success  of 
the  new  movement  among  the  masses  to  the 
communistic  doctrines  involved  in  it. 


266  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

In  these  countries  also  we  find  the  same 
phenomena  of  religious  exaltation,  amounting  in 
some  cases  to  undoubted  madness,  as  are  re- 
corded of  the  votaries  of  the  movement  by 
Kessler  in  St.  Gallen,  and  which  we  know  were 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  its  accompaniment 
everywhere.  Thus  in  Amsterdam  we  hear  of 
a  meeting  of  seven  men  and  five  women  in  a 
private  house  belonging  to  Jan  Siewerts,  a 
cloth  merchant,  who  was  on  a  journey.  One 
Dirk  Snyder  filled  the  role  of  prophet  at  this 
meeting,  which  appears  to  have  been  held  at 
3  a.  m.  Snyder  lay  down  flat  in  the  middle  of 
the  room  for  some  moments,  during  which  all 
were  seized  with  fear  and  imagined  that  the 
house  trembled.  He  at  length  rose  up,  and 
addressing  one  of  those  present,  said :  "  I  have 
beheld  God  in  His  glory  and  have  spoken  with 
Him.  I  have  been  ravished  up  to  heaven  and 
been  carried  down  to  hell,  where  I  have  seen 
all  things.  I  tell  thee  the  judgment-day  ap- 
proacheth  and  thou  hast  been  damned  for 
ever."  The  man  addressed  fell  on  his  knees  and 
cried:  "Father,  have  mercy  on  me."  Dirk  after 
a  pause  then  changed  his  tone,  saying :  u  The 
Father  hath  pity  on  thee  and  hath  adopted  thee 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  267 

as  his  child,  so  that  thy  sins  are  forgiven." 
The  next  night  the  same  persons,  together  with 
others,  again  assembled  in  the  house.  After 
preaching  and  praying  had  been  carried  on  for 
four  hours,  the  prophet  Dirk  proceeded  to  take 
off  his  clothes,  which  he  threw  in  the  fire  that 
was  burning  on  the  hearth.  Standing  in  the 
midst  quite  naked,  he  commanded  the  others, 
men  and  women,  to  do  likewise,  saying  that 
all  that  came  from  the  earth  must  be  sacrificed 
in  fire  to  God.  He  was  strictly  obeyed  by  all. 
Meanwhile  the  landlady  of  the  lodging,  proba- 
bly alarmed  by  the  fumes  of  burning  garments, 
entered  the  room,  whereupon  the  prophet,  en- 
joined her  in  imperative  tones  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  rest  of  the  assembly.  She  too 
obeyed  without  a  murmur.  The  prophet  then 
ordered  all  to  follow  him  out  into  the  street, 
where  they  walked  in  procession,  Dirk  at  their 
head,  crying :  "  Woe !  woe !  the  vengeance  of 
God,  the  heavenly  Father,  is  upon  you!"  The 
citizens  roused  from  their  slumbers  by  the  noise, 
repaired  in  arms  to  the  market-place,  under  the 
impression  that  a  hostile  force  had  gained  pos- 
session of  the  town.  On  seeing  the  Anabaptist 
fanatics,  they  arrested  them  all,  save  one  woman 


268  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

who  succeeded  in  escaping,  but  they  steadily 
refused  to  put  on  clothes,  alleging  that  truth 
was  naked,  and  that  its  apostles  must  be  so 
also.  In  this  condition  they  reached  the  Ratk- 
haus,  where  they  were  confined.  Meanwhile 
flames  broke  out  from  the  room  where  lay 
the  burning  clothes,  and  the  door  was  broken 
open  by  the  town  authorities  with  blows  from 
axes. 

Next  day,  a  house-to-house  visitation  was  made, 
and  many  Anabaptists  were  seized,  a  respite  of 
some  days  being  granted  them  to  enable  those 
who  would  recant  to  do  so  and  obtain  a  cer- 
tificate from  their  priest.  After  the  time  was 
expired,  the  utmost  rigour  of  punishment  awaited 
them.  Those  concerned  in  the  affair  were  all 
executed,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  woman 
who  has  been  mentioned  as  having  escaped. 
The  landlady  of  the  apartment  where  the  scene 
took  place  was  hanged  at  her  own  door. 

In  February  1534,  one  of  the  brethren,  a 
former  priest,  was  arrested  with  others  and  put 
to  the  torture.  Whilst  on  the  rack  he  confessed 
as  to  facts  connected  with  the  spread  of  the 
movement  and  as  to  its  meeting-places,  a  con- 
fession that  cost  the  Anabaptists  dear,  as  it 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  269 

gave  the  authorities  the  clues  they  wanted  to 
serve  them  for  the  organization  of  a  thorough- 
going campaign  of  persecution.  Sweeping  col- 
umns, averaging  some  twenty  men  each,  were 
sent  to  scour  the  country  districts.  Whoever 
was  in  the  least  suspect  was  at  once  arrested. 
So  great  was  the  apprehension  of  resistance 
that  the  arrests  were  generally  made  at  night, 
many  being  dragged  from  their  beds.  On  the 
2oth  March,  1534,  the  towns  of  Deventer,  Cam- 
pen  and  Zwolle  received  an  Imperial  order  to 
adopt  energetic  measures  to  root  out  the 
dangerous  elements  they  were  harbouring.  Hun- 
dreds of  persons  were  arrested  in  these  towns 
alone  on  a  charge  of  Anabaptism.  But  throughout 
Holland  the  fiercest  persecution  was  soon  raging. 
By  the  end  of  March  five  hundred  persons  were 
in  the  dungeons  of  Utrecht  and  its  neighbour- 
hood. The  summons  by  letter,  broadsheet  and 
messenger  to  come  to  the  relief  of  Miinster  met 
with  a  ready  response.  Thirty  shiploads  of 
Anabaptists  left  the  neighbourhood  of  Amster- 
dam on  the  2 ist  March,  1534,  for  the  relief  of 
uZion."  They  were  well  supplied  with  weapons 
and  ammunition.  In  all  there  were  nearly  three 
thousand  men,  besides  numerous  women  and 


270  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

children,  and  they  had  four  banners.  This  was 
coincident  with  the  great  pilgrimage  along  the 
highways  leading  from  Dutch  territories  to  the 
famous  Westphalian  town.  Numbers  of  the 
pilgrims  were  seized  by  the  sweeping  columns 
in  small  companies  as  they  came  in  sight.  As 
for  the  ships,  a  more  sudden  and  cruel  fate 
awaited  them  and  their  occupants.  Five  were 
scuttled  and  sunk,  all  on  board  being  drowned. 
Of  the  prisoners  taken  alive,  those  supposed 
to  be  the  leaders  were  executed  and  their  heads 
fixed  on  poles  along  the  highway,  whilst  their 
trunks  were  fastened  to  the  executioner's  wheel 
in  the  public  places  of  the  towns.  The  women 
and  children  were  in  most  cases  sent  to  their 
homes. 

On  the  25th  December,  1534,  an  Entente  took 
place  at  Deventer,  that  stronghold  of  Anabaptism. 
The  project  seems  to  have  been  well  planned, 
but  was  betrayed  beforehand  and  therefore  im- 
mediately crushed  by  the  authorities.  Three 
of  the  leading  conspirators,  among  them  the 
son  of  the  Biirgermeister,  were  beheaded  on 
the  market-place.  In  January  a  real  or  imaginary 
conspiracy  at  Leyden  was  unearthed,  the  object 
of  which  was  alleged  to  be  to  destroy  the  city 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  271 

of  Leyden  by  fire.  This  conspiracy  is  stated 
to  have  been  organised  in  the  old  house  formerly 
occupied  by  Jan  of  Leyden.  In  any  case  the 
house  was  used  for  meetings  of  the  Anabaptist 
body  and  sustained  a  siege  at  the  hands  oi  the 
authorities.  Although  the  brethren  seem  to 
have  made  a  valiant  resistance,  they  were  over- 
powered eventually  by  the  forces  of  u order" 
and  all  put  to  death,  the  men  being  beheaded 
and  the  women  drowned,  according  to  the 
distinction  usually  made  at  the  time  in  the 
mode  of  execution  of  the  sexes.  Bockelson's 
first  wife  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  those 
executed. 

In  almost  every  town  in  Holland,  Brabant, 
Flanders  and  the  other  territories  of  these  north- 
western regions  there  were  communities  of 
Anabaptist  saints,  and  in  all  of  them  at  this 
time  sympathy  with  the  Westphalian  Zion  was 
keen  and  often  practical.  Ships  were  sent  from 
other  places  besides  Amsterdam,  filled  with 
men  and  munitions  of  war,  round  the  north  of 
Holland  with  a  view  of  reaching  Miinster  from 
that  direction.  But  almost  all  were  intercepted. 

One  of  the  emissaries  from  Munster,  Jan  van 
Geelen,  who  at  the  end  of  1534  had  originally 


272  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

been  sent  to  Strasburg,  appears  early  in  1535 
again  in  the  north-west.  Towards  the  end  of 

o 

February  we  find  him  in  Friesland,  conducting 
a  body  of  his  co-religionists,  some  three  hundred 
in  all,  including  women  and  children,  who  were 
on  their  way  to  the  Haven  of  the  saints.  On 
the  28th  February  they  were  caught  up  by  one 
of  the  flying  columns  already  alluded  to  as  having 
been  instituted  at  the  behest  of  the  Imperial 
authorities.  The  leader  escaped,  but  the  bulk 
of  the  rank  and  file  were  executed,  the  men 
by  beheading  and  the  women  by  drowning. 
Van  Geelen  next  appears  in  Amsterdam,  where 
he  seems  to  have  been  connected  with  a  plot 
for  seizing  the  city.  Early  in  May,  the  town- 
hall  (Stadhms)  was  suddenly  attacked  by  a  body 
of  Anabaptist  rioters,  but  the  Town  Council  was 
able  to  summon  a  force  of  well-to-do  burghers. 
A  regular  battle  ensued,  in  the  course  of  which 
one  of  the  Biirgermeisters  lost  his  life.  The 
conflict  lasted  many  hours,  the  Anabaptists  having 
succeeded  in  gaining  possession  of  the  municipal 
headquarters,  though  apparently  not  without  great 
loss  on  their  own  side.  Reduced  to  twenty-five 
in  number,  they  held  the  building  valiantly  against 
the  party  of " order"  outside,  into  whose  ranks  a 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  273 

continuous  hail  of  bullets  fell.  At  last,  by  dint 
of  cannon  and  scaling-ladders  the  place  was 
captured,  but  only  twelve  Anabaptists  were  taken 
alive.  These  were  executed  with  diabolical 
cruelty  shortly  afterwards,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  bodies  of  their  slain  comrades  were 
hanged  by  the  feet  to  gallows  erected  in  the 
central  Market-place.  Van  Geelen  himself,  who 
sought  refuge  in  the  tower  of  the  Stadhuis,  was 
killed  by  a  shot  from  one  of  the  pieces  of  ordnance 
deployed  on  the  Market-place. 

Meanwhile,  at  Bolswaert,  in  Friesland,  on  the 
28th  February,  the  sectaries  made  themselves 
masters  of  an  old  monastery.  More  than  three 
hundred  persons  took  part  in  the  affair.  The 
monks  were  driven  off  and  the  building  sacked. 
Next  day  the  Governor  of  the  Province,  Joris 
Schenk,  came  and  besieged  the  insurgents. 
Negotiations  followed;  he  promised  them  pardon 
if  they  would  lay  down  their  arms  and  deliver 
up  the  ringleaders,  but  they  refused,  being 
resolved  to  live  and  die  together.  The  siege 
that  ensued  was  terrific ;  with  six  cannon  the 
Governor  made  four  assaults,  but  was  beaten 
back  each  time.  On  April  yth,  however,  they 
were  overcome.  Not  more  than  sixty  were  found 

18 


274  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

alive,  with  seventy  women  and  children.  All 
the  prisoners  were  taken  to  Leuwarde,  where 
a  number  were  sentenced  to  death. 

Anabaptism  was  introduced  into  the  town  of 
Liege  about  the  year  1533,  by  a  glass-maker 
whose  name  is  unknown.  In  Maestricht,  Heinrich 
von  Tongern,  having  been  driven  from  the  terri- 
tory of  Jiilich  towards  the  end  of  1532  for 
Anabaptist  doctrines,  had  taken  up  his  residence 
in  the  house  of  a  shoemaker.  Here  also  a 
considerable  congregation  was  recruited  among 
the  journeymen  and  poorer  handicraftsmen.  At 
the  beginning  of  September  1534,  a  guildmaster, 
and  a  former  Carmelite  monk  calling  himself 
Hendrik  van  Hilversum,  the  latter  being  spoken 
of  as  the  leader  of  the  Maestricht  Anabaptists, 
were  arrested.  This  Hendrik  was  no  other  than 
Heinrich  Roll,  late  of  Mlinster,  who  before  he 
came  to  Maestricht  had  been  sowing  the  seed 
in  Wesel.  The  wandering  envoys  from  Miinster 
were  everywhere  active  throughout  the  winter 
and  the  following  spring,  strengthening  old  ties 
and  instituting  new  ones,  in  the  hope,  vain 
as  it  proved,  of  organising  a  powerful  force  of 
enthusiasts  to  relieve  Miinster  now  so  hardly 
pressed  by  the  Bishop's  army. 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  275 

In  some  towns  it  was  resolved  by  the  City 
Councils  to  order  lists  of  strangers  to  be  handed 
in  day  by  day  after  the  closing  of  the  gates, 
while  in  many  cases  a  strict  curfew  was  introduced. 
The  Duke  of  Cleves,  finding  his  own  and  all 
the  surrounding  territories  honeycombed  with 
Anabaptist  associations,  holding  everywhere  open 
conventicles  or  secret  meetings,  ordered  the 
authorities  of  each  district  to  report  the  exact 
number  of  all  landlords  of  places  of  public  enter- 
tainment in  their  jurisdiction,  and  to  compel 
them,  under  severe  penalties,  to  report  every 
meeting  that  came  to  their  knowledge  at  which 
the  rights  of  the  existing  spiritual  and  temporal 
powers  were  called  in  question.  This  edict,  issued 
on  the  3rd  of  April,  1534,  was  supplemented 
towards  the  end  of  the  year  by  one  signed 
jointly  by  the  Duke  and  the  Archbishop  Hermann 
of  Koln.  In  this,  death  without  hope  of  pardon 
was  made  the  punishment  for  rebaptism.  It  was 
circulated  early  in  the  new  year  throughout  all 
the  domains  of  the  Duke  Johann.  Not  alone 
the  local  authorities  were  compelled  to  see  to 
its  being  made  known,  but  the  clergy  were 
ordered  to  read  it  from  the  pulpit  at  intervals 
of  four  weeks. 


276  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The  larger  towns  along  the  Rhine  were  not 
without  their  contingent  of  the  new  sectaries. 
Thus  even  in  strictly  Catholic  Koln,  in  the  autumn 
of  1534,  we  are  told  there  were  no  fewer  than 
seven  hundred  adherents  of  the  new  sect.  In 
November,  a  number  of  executions  took  place 
in  consequence  of  a  warning  issued  in  September 
by  the  Archbishop  to  the  town  authorities. 

Turning  back  again  to  Westphalia,  we  find  all 
the  smaller  towns  showing  indications  of  following 
the  example  of  the  chief  town.  Warendorf  was 
ripe  for  the  advent  of  the  Miinster  emissaries 
in  October  1534,  but  here  the  Bishop,  by  vigorous 
action,  succeeded  in  suppressing  the  movement, 
executing  the  Miinsterite  apostles  together  with 
their  leading  followers.  The  town  itself  was 
humiliated  and  had  to  place  itself  at  the  Bishop's 
mercy.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  Coesfeld, 
where  the  inhabitants  were  compelled  to  surrender 
Jan  of  Leyden's  missionaries  to  the  Bishop's 
officers,  by  whom  they  were  cruelly  put  to  death, 
having  been  carried  in  chains  as  a  terrible 
warning  throughout  other  towns  of  the  diocese. 

The  Munsterites  were  particularly  concerned 
to  win  over  the  town  of  Soest.  This  was  a 
Hanseatic  town  possessing  considerable  liberties, 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  277 

but  it  was  not  free  of  the  Empire,  being  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Prince-Bishop.  The 
prophet  Dusentschur,  who  had  drawn  up  the 
list  of  towns  from  which  help  might  be  expect- 
ed, had  placed  Soest  at  the  head  of  it.  His 
hopes  were  based  on  the  strong  position  of 
the  Democratic  party  there.  Reformation  dis- 
turbances began  there  early  in  1533.  The 
abolition  of  the  religious  houses  was  demanded, 
together  with  the  handing  over  of  the  buildings 
themselves  to  the  Soest  burghers.  A  secret 
league  of  the  poorer  citizens  was  formed  against 
the  Rath  and  the  guild-masters  who  stood  by 
the  Rath.  The  latter  succeeded  in  suppressing 
the  movement  and  sentenced  the  leaders  to 
death.  Two  thousand  of  the  party  of  "order," 
fully  armed,  occupied  the  Market-place.  The 
"common  man,"  however,  the  poorer  handicrafts- 
men, the  journeymen,  and  the  town  proletarians 
flocked  thither  and  raised  a  great  outcry.  The 
women  were  specially  conspicuous  by  their 
lamentations.  One  u  honourable  pious  woman," 
as  she  is  termed,  gave  utterance,  it  is  said,  to 
a  remarkable  prophecy.  Whilst  the  condemned 
were  passing  by,  she  cried  out  to  them :  u  Dear 
friends,  be  content!  God  doth  no  wrong.  Ye 


278  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

are  not  yet  dead,  and  it  shall  yet  be  well  with 
you ! "  Manfully,  with  head  erect,  they  went 
to  their  fate,  averring  that  they  would  live  and 
die  by  the  Gospel.  The  first  victim  knelt  down 
to  await  the  blow  of  the  executioner.  The 
blow  fell,  but  only  wounded  the  prisoner,  who 
was  able  to  spring  to  his  feet  and  wrench 
the  axe  from  the  executioner's  hand.  When 
this  was  seen,  a  violent  disturbance  arose 
and  the  authorities  dared  not  proceed  with 
the  executions.  Next  day,  the  City  Council- 
room  was  stormed  by  five  hundred  men 
and  women  demanding  pardon  for  the  pri- 
soners, which  the  Rath  thought  it  prudent  to 
accord. 

In  November  1534,  the  Elector  Johann  Frie- 
drich  of  Saxony,  who  was  conducting  military 
operations  for  the  Bishop  round  Soest,  was 
present  in  the  town,  taking  steps  against  the 
spread  of  the  movement,  and  on  the  iyth  De- 
cember the  City  Council  at  his  instigation  issued 
a  severe  mandate,  not  only  against  Anabaptist 
themselves,  but  also  against  all  harbouring  such 
in  their  houses.  The  man  who  originally 
introduced  Anabaptism  into  Soest  was  a  certain 
Johann  von  Campen,  a  disciple  of  Melchior 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER,  279 

Hoffmann.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  propagandist 
and  worked  with  Hoffmann  when  he  was  in 
Holstein  and  also  in  Llibeck  and  Brunswick. 
As  the  Miinster  emissaries,  prophet  Dusentschur 
at  their  head,  entered  the  town  on  the  8th 
October,  1534,  they  are  said  to  have  conducted 
themselves  as  if  they  were  already  masters  of 
the  place,  openly  preaching  insurrection.  The 
Rath  repeatedly  requested  the  Munsterites  to 
leave,  but  received  only  defiant  answers.  At 
last,  the  heads  of  the  Guilds  and  other  leading 
personages  were  called  together  to  the  Rathhaus, 
and  took  oath  to  stand  by  the  governing  Council 
in  the  action  it  was  about  to  take  against  the 
unwelcome  visitors.  On  the  23rd  October, 
sentence  of  death  was  passed  on  the  apostles 
and  immediately  carried  out.  The  disaffected 
population  were  thus  cowed  and  the  authority 
of  the  Rath  was  re-established.  In  Osnabriick, 
not  far  distant,  similar  events  were  taking  place ; 
but  right  away  to  the  north,  in  Hamburg,  Bremen, 
Liibeck,  Luneburg,  Wismar,  and  Rostock,  the 
population  seethed  with  excitement,  and  were 
strongly  leavened  with  Anabaptist  congregations 
and  doctrines.  Towards  the  east,  the  spread  of  the 
new  teaching  and  of  the  net-work  of  Anabaptist 


280  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

organisation  was  felt  in  Brunswick,  Hanover, 
and  Magdeburg,  to  mention  only  the  principal 
among  the  town-populations  affected  by  them 
and  by  the  contemporary  events  passing  in 
Westphalia. 

At  this  time,  and  throughout  these  northern 
regions,  territories,  and  cities  of  Germany,  there 
seems  to  have  been  an  organisation  involving 
much  closer  relations  than  had  existed  as  a 
rule  between  the  different  Anabaptist  communi- 
ties in  the  south  in  the  earlier  periods  of  the 
movement.  This  was  in  all  probability  due  to 
the  new  work  initiated  by  Jan  Matthys  and  so 
energetically  carried  on  by  his  disciples.  From 
various  documents  and  protocols  which  have 
been  preserved,  it  would  seem  that  a  large 
number  of  Anabaptist  communities  throughout 
the  north  had  agreed  to  take  their  cue  from 
Liibeck  in  the  action  they  should  adopt.  They 
appear  to  have  been  waiting  for  Liibeck  to 
follow  the  example  of  Miinster,  and  the  expec- 
tation that  this  would  happen  seemed  at  one 
time  in  a  fair  way  of  fulfilment.  But  from 
causes  unknown  to  history,  Liibeck  did  not  imitate 
Miinster.  Threatening  as  matters  looked,  there 
was  no  actual  rising.  Keller  is  of  opinion 


THE  PROPAGANDA  OUTSIDE  MUNSTER.  281 

that  the  reasons  may  possibly  be  looked  for 
partly  in  the  external  complications  in  which 
the  Hanse  town  at  this  time  had  got  entangled, 
and  partly  in  a  revulsion  of  feeling  among  the 
otherwise  sympathetic  population,  on  the  ground 
of  the  alleged  excesses  that  were  taking  place 
in  Munster  itself.  As  to  the  correctness  of  this 
view,  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  decide. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

MiiNSTER's   FALL   AND   THE  FATE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT. 

WHEN  in  February  1534  so  many  highly  re- 
spectable ancient  burghers  of  Miinster  were 
compelled  to  fly  before  the  rising  tide  of  Ana- 
baptist fanaticism,  they  doubtless  believed  that  in 
a  few  days,  or  weeks  at  the  outside,  they  would 
be  restored  to  their  dwellings  under  the  segis 
of  the  Bishop's  men-at-arms.  Many  among  the 
party  of  the  "  respectables  "  in  the  town,  namely, 
the  Catholics  and  orthodox  Protestants,  were 
indeed  firmly  convinced  of  this.  Already  in  the 
last  days  of  1533,  the  feudatories  of  the  Bishop 
throughout  the  diocese  were  ordered  to  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  to  obey  any  sudden  call 
to  arms  that  might  be  made  upon  them.  In 
the  course  of  the  following  February  this  order 
was  renewed,  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  new 
Anabaptist  Council  was  chosen  and  the  power 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  insurrectionary  party, 
that  a  definite  command  was  given  to  both 
orders  of  feudatories  to  assemble  immediately 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  283 

at  places  appointed  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  city,  fully  armed,  viz.,  with  horse,  armour 
and  halberd.  The  response,  however,  was  not 
satisfactory.  Above  all,  the  quality  of  the  pea- 
sants and  the  smaller  landholders  who  came 
left  much  to  be  desired  from  a  military  point 
of  view.  The  fact  is  that  the  old  mediaeval 
ulevy  of  the  tenants"  had  for  a  generation  past 
fallen  into  desuetude.  Many  tenants  did  not 
reside  on  their  fiefs,  whilst  some  holdings  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  churchmen  and  religious 
houses. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  no  longer 
possible  to  carry  on  warlike  operations  in  the 
old  feudal  manner,  or  with  the  old  feudal  mate- 
rial, exclusively.  The  hired  mercenary,  the  free- 
lance or  landsknecht,  dominated  the  military 
situation  everywhere.  At  length  recognising  this 
fact,  Bishop  Franz  von  Waldeck  began  recruiting 
in  earnest  throughout  all  the  neighbouring  terri- 
tories, but  want  of  money  prevented  him  even 
in  this  way  from  obtaining  an  adequate  supply 
of  trained  soldiers.  Such  as  it  was,  his  army 
was  in  time  constituted,  the  chief  commands  being 
distributed  amongst  his  principal  knightly  vassals. 
But  it  was  not  only  men  and  money  that  failed 


284  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Franz.  He  had  no  ordnance  and  quite  insuf- 
ficient powder  and  ammunition.  In  fact,  at  this 
time,  the  early  spring  of  1534,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  concerted  action  on  the  part  of  the  sectaries 
in  the  numerous  smaller  towns  and  not  a  few 
important  ones  where  the  Anabaptist  party,  as 
such,  was  already  strong,  and  where  large  sec- 
tions of  the  population  outside  their  ranks  were 
in  sympathy  with  them,  would  have  resulted  in 
at  least  a  temporary  victory  for  the  cause 
throughout  the  whole  of  north-western  Germany 
and  possibly  in  Holland  as  well.  The  same 
reasons,  of  course,  which  would  have  rendered 
any  permanent  success  impossible  for  the  peasant 
levies  in  the  previous  decade  of  the  century 
would  have  operated  now  to  render  any  lasting 
result  unattainable  for  a  movement  that  rested 
economically  in  the  main  on  the  poorer  sections 
of  the  town  populations.  Although  the  era  of 
the  craftsman  was  not  as  yet  by  any  means 
over,  still,  with  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  the  rapid  decline  of  the  Guild-industry,  it 
had  become  a  decadent  factor,  which  receded 
in  proportion  to  the  advance  made  by  the  earlier 
forms  of  modern  capitalism.  The  dream  of  the 
impoverished  townsman  of  a  millennial  kingdom, 


AfUNSTER'S  FALL.  285 

based  on  mediaeval  domestic  communism  and 
animated  by  the  ideals  of  the  small  artificer  of 
the  time,  was  in  itself  as  hopeless  as  the  cor- 
responding dream  of  the  peasant  ten  years  be- 
fore, which  also  aimed  at  harking  back  to  an 
idealised  form  of  a  condition  of  things  that  had 

O 

passed  away.  The  lines  of  social  development 
were  moving  in  quite  another  direction. 

So  great  was  the  Bishop's  need  financially 
that,  after  resorting  to  the  most  desperate  ex- 
pedients in  the  matter  of  credit,  hypothecating 
taxes,  rent-dues,  and  the  like,  with  insufficient 
results,  the  extreme  course  was  adopted  of  turning 
into  money  the  gold  and  silver  treasures  of  the 
religious  houses  and  churches.  The  act  was 
excused  on  the  ground  of  the  necessity  of  pre- 
serving them  from  the  sacrilegious  hands  of  the 
Anabaptists,  but  was,  nevertheless,  not  carried 
out  without  protests  on  the  part  of  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities  immediately  concerned.  Even 
if  money  had  been  forthcoming,  there  would 
have  still  remained  the  difficulty  of  procuring 
the  munitions  of  war  within  a  reasonable  time. 
As  late  as  May  we  hear  of  the  besieging  army 
being  unable  to  acquire  the  means  to  fire  more 
than  about  six  ordnance  shots  a  day.  By  slow 


286  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

degrees  and  with  great  difficulty  pieces  of  ord- 
nance came  in,  bought  or  loaned  from  neigh- 
bouring nobles.  But  it  proved  still  more  trou- 
blesome to  hire  men.  The  free-lances,  who 
were  prepared  to  offer  their  services  to  any 
potentate  or  any  cause  for  a  consideration, 
fought  shy  of  the  Prince-Bishop,  whose  semi- 
bankrupt  condition  was  a  matter  of  public  no- 
toriety. The  same  distrust  prevented  the  nobles 
and  ecclesiastics,  with  whom  the  Bishop  was 
anxious  to  negotiate  loans,  from  responding  to 
any  great  extent.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Anabaptists  were  known  to  have  the  wealth  of 
the  Metropolitan  City  at  their  disposal,  and  no 
day  passed  but  numerous  free-lances  entered 
the  town,  not  only  singly,  but  even  in  companies, 
to  take  service  with  the  defence.  They  were 
largely  recruited  from  the  class  to  which  the 
Anabaptists  mostly  belonged,  namely,  the  town 
proletariat.  Hence  their  intrinsic  sympathies  may 
have  been  on  the  side  of  the  sectaries. 

The  Bishop's  demands  for  help  being  coolly 
received  by  the  three  principalities,  Hesse, 
Cleves  and  Koln,  he  turned  towards  the  Imperial 
possessions  of  Spain  and  Burgundy.  The  growing 
rapprochement  between  Franz  and  the  Court  of 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  287 

Brussels  made  the  Evangelical  Count  (Landgraf} 
Philip  of  Hesse  anxious,  and  probably  led  to  his 
sending  two  small  contingents  to  assist  the 
Bishop's  army  in  the  siege.  On  the  26th  March 
there  was  a  conference  of  Princes  and  higher 
nobles  at  a  place  called  Orsoy.  At  this  con- 
ference the  Duke  of  Cleves  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Koln  seem  to  have  at  length  consented  to 
afford  substantial  aid  in  money,  men  and  war 
material.  This  enabled  Waldeck  to  free  him- 
self from  obnoxious  obligations  to  the  Evangelical 
Hesse.  He  sent  back  the  two  contingents  al- 
ready received  from  the  Count,  and  also  for- 
warded a  letter  of  thanks  by  a  special  mes- 
senger, informing  him  that  he  no  longer  re- 
quired his  help. 

The  Bishop  was  now  relieved,  in  fact,  for  the 
moment,  from  the  necessity  of  relying  on  either 
Hesse  or  Burgundy,  and  henceforward  turned 
his  attention  to  his  great  Catholic  neighbours. 
But  the  delay  caused  by  these  negotiations  had 
given  the  Miinsterites  time  to  perfect  their 
defensive  works  and  to  otherwise  organise  the 
resistance  to  the  besiegers.  It  was  not  until 
the  2ist  May  that  Waldeck  felt  himself  strong 
enough  to  begin  the  bombardment  of  the  town. 


288  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Five  days  later — it  was  on  a  Whit-Monday— 
he  proceeded  to  storm  the  ramparts.  This 
attack,  carried  out,  in  part  at  least,  by  drunken 
and  imperfectly  disciplined  free-lances,  was  easily 
repulsed  by  the  inhabitants,  as  we  have  seen. 

A  portion  of  the  besiegers,  nevertheless,  seem 
to  have  fought  with  vigour,  and  succeeded  in 
bringing  the  scaling-ladders  up  against  the  walls. 
But  this  was  as  much  as  they  could  do  before 
the  whole  force  was  driven  back  in  confusion 
with  heavy  loss.  The  defeat  had  a  serious 
effect  on  the  Bishop's  position.  No-one  in  the 
camp  would  hear  of  repeating  the  experiment. 
The  Bishop's  men  had  to  confine  themselves,  for 
a  long  period,  to  sapping  and  mining  operations. 

At  the  same  time  the  two  principal  allies  of 
the  Episcopal  see,  Cleves  and  Kbln,  were  en- 
treated for  more  help.  A  new  conference  of 
neighbouring  potentates  was  called  together  in 
June  at  Neuss,  and  on  the  2Oth  of  the  month 
further  support  was  promised,  and  an  advance 
of  sixty  thousand  gulden  in  money  was  guaranteed. 
On  his  side,  the  Bishop  had  to  undertake  to 
accept  as  his  counsellors  Count  Wilhelm  of 
Nassau  and  two  other  noblemen  indicated  by 
his  allies.  They  were  to  be  present  in  the  camp, 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  289 

and  all  military  measures  proposed  were  to  be 
submitted  to  them.  But  it  was  not  until  more 
than  two  months  later,  on  the  24th  August, 
that  it  was  decided  in  a  council  of  war  to  employ 
the  full  force  of  the  besieging  army  in  a  new 
assault  on  the  city.  A  formal  summons  to  sur- 
render was  to  precede  it.  This  was  made  on  the 
following  day,  accompanied  by  promises  of  am- 
nesty. Jan  of  Leyden  replied  to  the  Bishop's 
envoys  that  he  had  no  need  for  his  Lordship's 
mercy,  that  the  Heavenly  Father  would  show 
him  mercy  and  would  punish  the  godless  who 
were  his  enemies. 

The  Bishop,  thinking  that  his  offers  had  not 
reached  the  population,  reiterated  them  in  letters 
which  he  had  secretly  conveyed  into  the  town. 
Time  was  given  until  the  27th  August  to  deliver 
up  the  city.  But  the  beleaguerers  waited  in  vain. 
Night  fell  on  the  2yth  August  without  a  sign  of 
submission.  On  the  28th,  the  bombardment 
began.  Three  days'  cannonade  effected  some 
breaches  in  the  walls.  At  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  the  3ist,  the  attack  was  opened 
along  the  whole  line.  The  Bishop's  forces  at 
first  succeeded  in  making  some  headway.  They 
pressed  beyond  the  outer  line  of  fortifications 

19 


290    RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

at  several  points,  but  it  was  soon  found  that  a 
well-organised  resistance  had  been  prepared. 
Some  treachery  by  certain  persons  from  the 
Bishop's  camp  had  revealed  the  plan  of  attack, 
it  is  said.  As  soon  as  the  bulk  of  the  mercenaries 
had  advanced  within  range,  a  well-directed  fire 
suddenly  opened  upon  them  from  the  battlements. 
Columns  advancing  simultaneously  were  hurled 
back  in  confusion.  Repeated  attacks  on  the 
gates  were  made  by  detachments  of  free-lances, 
but  in  every  case  without  result.  The  assault 
had  proved  a  huge  disaster  for  the  partisans  of 
"order,"  and  the  discomfiture  of  the  Bishop's 
forces  was  complete.  Forty-eight  commanders 
had  fallen,  besides  many  hundreds  of  the  rank 
and  file.  The  Anabaptists,  as  already  recorded, 
were  jubilant,  and  the  signal  victory  had,  as  we 
have  seen,  important  results  for  the  internal  politics 
of  Munster.  Unfortunately,  as  has  always  been 
the  case  throughout  history,  the  intrinsically  weaker 
party,  the  party  of  revolution,  did  not  understand 
the  necessity  of  immediately  following  up  its 
success.  Had  a  powerful  sortie  at  once  been 
made,  the  entire  camp  of  Miinster's  feudal  over- 
lord might  have  been  captured  and  the  city  freed, 
at  least  for  the  time  being.  As  it  was,  the 


MUNSTER'S  FALL. 291 

Bishop  removed  himself  out  of  harm's  way, 
followed  at  no  long  interval  by  his  leading  nobles. 
This  was  the  signal  for  wholesale  desertion  on 
the  part  of  the  mercenaries.  It  was,  in  fact, 
only  by  extravagant  promises  of  future  good  pay 
that  a  remnant  was  persuaded  to  remain  behind 
to  continue  the  contest  with  the  "  Kingdom 
of  God." 

But  money  was  now  again  lacking.  Writing 
to  the  Duke  of  Cleves  on  the  6th  September, 
Waldeck  complains  that  the  attack  and  the 
preparations  for  it  have  exhausted  all  that  was 
left  of  the  money  he  received  in  June,  and  begs 
him  to  come  to  his  assistance  without  delay. 
At  the  same  time  he  expresses  his  conviction 
that  the  Duke's  help  alone  will  not  suffice,  and 
that  it  will  be  necessary  to  call  out  the  whole 
Imperial  district  of  the  Lower  Rhine.  On  the 
nth  September  the  return-messenger  arrived 
with  a  letter  in  which  Duke  Johann  promised  to 
raise,  not  merely  the  Lower  Rhine  district,  but 
also  those  of  the  Upper  Rhine  and  Lower  Saxony. 
The  reply  rejoiced  the  Bishop's  heart  and  relieved 
him  of  apprehensions  as  to  his  ultimate  success. 

Meantime  he  had  to  keep  the  siege  going 
until  the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements.  The  first 


292   RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

step  was  the  calling  of  a  Landtag  at  Telgte,  for 
more  money  was  urgent,  even  for  the  interim 
operations.  At  Telgte,  the  Bishop  laid  before 
the  Westphalian  u  estates  "  the  desperate  straits 
to  which  the  diocese  was  reduced  and  the 
imminent  danger  of  delay  in  furnishing  credits. 
In  consequence  of  his  representations,  it  was 
resolved  to  raise  the  necessary  money  by  an 
extraordinary  tax  of  three  gold  gulden  for  every 
field  under  the  plough,  and  two  gold  gulden  for 
every  field  on  sandy  or  otherwise  non-agricultural 
soil.  From  every  peasant  possessing  a  horse 
half  a  gulden  was  levied,  and  from  all  working 
for  money-wages  ten  per  cent  of  their  earnings. 
These  taxes,  which  were  collected  with  difficulty, 
would  not  have  proved  sufficient  to  carry  on 
the  siege  had  they  not  been  supplemented  by 
an  immediate  advance  of  money  from  the  Duke 
himself.  The  situation  continued  for  some  little 
time  favourable  for  the  insurgents,  but  they  failed 
to  take  advantage  of  it.  The  Anabaptists  inside 
Miinster  were  too  much  occupied  with  organising 
their  miniature  Kingdom  of  God,  just  at  this 
moment,  to  spare  the  requisite  energy  for  coping 
with  the  primary  necessities  of  ultimate  military 
success. 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  293 

The  effect  of  the  Anabaptist  victory  of  the 
3  ist  August  was  to  increase  the  excitement  in 
the  small  Westphalian  towns,  including  Waren- 
dorf,  and  the  attempt  was  eagerly  made  by  them 
to  bring  about  an  understanding  between  Miin- 
ster  and  its  Prince-Bishop.  But  it  was  of  no 
avail.  As  we  know,  on  the  arrival  of  the  Ana- 
baptist emissaries  on  the  I2th  October,  Waren- 
dorf  openly  declared  for  Minister  and  Anabaptism. 
It  was  only  the  suddenness  of  the  Bishop's  ac- 
tion in  crushing  the  insurrectionary  party  in  the 
town  that  prevented  a  serious  diversion  in  favour 
of  the  Miinsterites  from  establishing  itself. 

The  Protestant  estates,  which  were  now  again 
called  upon  to  lend  aid,  showed  themselves  re- 
calcitrant. The  treacherous  judicial  murder  of 
the  syndic  of  Mlinster,  Von  der  Wieck,  by  the 
Bishop,  coupled  with  the  report  that  it  was 
Waldeck's  intention  to  violently  upset  the  Charter 
of  religious  .'freedom  and  reintroduce  Catholicism, 
had  tended  to  alienate  them.  Waldeck  had  to 
look  elsewhere.  His  emissaries  were  sent  to  all 
the  Catholic  Powers,  great  and  small,  through- 
out the  north-west.  They  represented,  as  was 
in  fact  the  truth,  that  the  object  of  the  Munster 
Anabaptists  was  to  raise  insurrection  far  and 


294  JUSE  AND  PALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

wide  in  every  town  and  village,  and  hence  that 
their  own  interests  urgently  demanded  that  they 
should  make  common  cause  with  him  in  crushing 
out  the  centre  of  the  most  dangerous  and  wide- 
spread disaffection  the  country  had  known. 
Meanwhile  the  Duke  of  Cleves  had  called  to- 
gether the  Lower  Rhenish  and  Westphalian 
"estates."  The  Bishop  represented  to  them 
the  urgency  of  the  situation,  that  he  was  acting 
in  the  interest  of  the  whole  north-west  country, 
that  up  to  the  present  time  the  siege  had  cost 
him  seven  hundred  thousand  gulden,  and  that 
for  their  own  safety  they  should  immediately 
afford  substantial  help.  The  "  estates,"  however, 
thought  that  the  matter  was  Imperial  rather 
than  local,  and  concerned  the  whole  German 
peoples  rather  than  any  one  portion  of  Germany. 
They  would  only  disburse  some  unexhausted 
monies  that  had  been  raised  against  the  threatened 
Turkish  invasion. 

At  his  wits'  end  for  resources,  the  Bishop 
wrote  on  October  3ist  to  the  Austro-Spanish 
authorities  at  Brussels,  urgently  appealing  for 
aid,  and  he  followed  this  up  a  fortnight  later 
by  the  despatch  of  envoys  to  press  home  his 
arguments.  His  negotiations  do  not  appear  to 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  295 

have  met  with  any  noteworthy  results.  At  last, 
on  December  i4th,  a  joint  meeting  of  the 
"estates"  of  the  Lower  Rhenish  district  (Kreis), 
including  Westphalia,  and  of  the  Upper  Rhenish 
district  was  with  some  difficulty  brought  about 
at  Coblenz.  Some  fifty  representatives  were 
present,  embracing  delegates  from  all  the  im- 
portant cities  of  the  territories  concerned.  The 
Bishop's  own  envoys  were  not  slack  in  em- 
ploying suitable  terms  to  describe  the  desperate 
nature  of  the  situation,  even  going  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  if  adequate  help  were  not  immedi- 
ately forthcoming  the  Bishop  would  have  to  let 
the  matter  take  its  own  course.  These  warnings 
had  their  effect.  After  some  discussion,  the 
following  steps  were  decided  upon,  and  the 
document  embodying  them  countersigned  by 
those  present  on  December  26th.  It  was  resolved 
by  the  u  estates  "  to  construct  and  garrison  seven 
"block-houses"  round  the  town  of  Mtinster. 
These  were  to  be  connected  with  well-defended 
moats  and  would  constitute  the  first  line  of 
defence.  The  outer  line  was  to  be  occupied 
by  three  hundred  fully  equipped  horsemen, 
whose  function  it  would  be  to  prevent  the  deser- 
tion of  the  free-lances  and  to  effectually  cut  oft 


296  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Miinster  from  the  outer  world  by  stopping  any 
fugitives  from  the  city  who  might  succeed  in 
getting  through  the  line  of  block-houses.  The 
Count  of  Dhaun  and  Falkenstein  was  made 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  forces.  New  military 
advisers  were  appointed.  The  "  estates  "  pledged 
themselves  to  furnish  fifteen  thousand  Rhenish 
gold  gulden  every  month  for  six  months.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Prince-Bishop  had  to  agree, 
on  the  part  of  himself  and  his  chapter,  that  no 
fresh  changes  in  the  internal  constitution  of  the 

o 

town  should  be  undertaken  without  the  consent 
of  the  "  estates,"  who  were  parties  to  the  present 
protocol. 

It  was  clear  that  even  these  new  arrangements 
did  not  give  any  prospect  of  a  speedy  conquest 
of  the  town.  They  simply  meant  its  gradual 
reduction  by  starvation.  Waldeck  was  far  from 
satisfied.  Moreover,  he  thought  that  his  share 
of  the  financial  burden  was  too  heavy,  whilst 
his  authority  was  largely  curtailed,  being  trans- 
ferred to  the  Commander-in-Chief  and  the  other 
nominees  of  the  "  estates."  As  it  was,  he  had 
to  call  another  session  of  his  own  "  estates " 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  fresh  taxes  to  meet 
the  situation. 


MUNSTERS  FALL.  297 

The  besieged  met  these  measures  of  the 
enemy  by  a  renewed  and  desperate  effort  to 
rouse  the  surrounding  provinces.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  Bernhardt  Rothmann  published  his 
pamphlet  entitled  "  Concerning  Vengeance," 
already  referred  to,  which  was  secretly  con- 
veyed out  of  the  town  in  thousands  of  copies 
by  messengers  of  the  Anabaptist  leaders,  special 
care  being  taken  that  it  should  be  widely  dis- 
tributed in  the  northern  Netherlands.  The  mes- 
sengers started  out  on  Christmas  Eve,  1534.  On 
the  following  New  Year's  Day,  once  more  four 
burghers  of  Mtinster,  having  expressed  their 
willingness,  were  sent  as  apostles  to  the  Brethren 
without.  They  succeeded  in  getting  through  the 
outposts  and  reached  the  town  of  Hamm.  Thence 
they  went  to  Dortmund,  Essen,  and  other  cities 
of  the  northern  Rhine.  Subsequently  they 
separated  with  the  object  of  getting  together 
a  relief  force,  appointing  to  meet  again  after 
a  certain  time.  One  of  their  number,  Zillis 
by  name,  meanwhile  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
authorities,  and  from  his  confession,  obtained 
as  usual  under  torture,  (our  only  source  for  the 
facts  connected  with  this  incident,)  the  mission 
would  seem  to  have  been  not  altogether  fruit- 

O 


298  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

less,  although  the  ultimate  result  hoped  for  was 
not  gained. 

As  we  have  seen,  encouraged  by  knowledge 
of  the  Bishop's  embarrassment,  and  especially 
by  the  Anabaptist  victory  of  August  3ist,  the 
flame  of  insurrection  flared  up  at  various  points 
and  continued  to  the  end  of  the  year  to  flicker 
on  throughout  a  widespread  area.  But  it  was 
in  all  cases  eventually  suppressed.  Even  at  the 
end  of  January,  1535,  in  the  diocese  of  Utrecht, 
especially  in  the  towns  of  Deventer  and  Zwolle, 
matters  looked  extremely  serious  for  the  powers 
that  were.  The  Miinsterites,  as  the  newly  recruit- 
ed free-lances  came  into  the  Bishop's  camp, 
found  means  of  approaching  them  with  offers 
of  higher  pay,  and  doubtless  again  succeeded 
in  enticing  some  of  them  to  their  own  side. 
Meanwhile  Waldeck  was  still  in  bodily  fear  of 
an  invasion  on  the  part  of  the  Netherland 
"  brethren  "  and  kept  spies  of  his  own  in  Holland 
and  Friesland  busy  reporting  to  him  whatever 
took  place.  At  this  time  the  confidence  in  their 
ultimate  success  on  the  part  of  Jan  and  his 
colleagues  seems  to  have  been  at  its  height. 

One  of  the  apostles  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Bishop's  agent  at  Osnabriick  the  previous  October 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  299 

was  a  former  schoolmaster  named  Johann  Graess. 
He  stood  in  high  odour  of  Anabaptist  sanctity 
and  was  one  of  the  intimates  of  King  Jan  him- 
self. Condemned  to  death  like  the  rest,  he 
entreated  to  be  allowed  a  special  audience  of 
Bishop  Franz.  This  being  granted,  he  declared 
his  willingness  to  turn  traitor,  on  condition  of 
his  life  being  spared.  His  proposal  was  that 
he  should  be  permitted  to  escape  and  return 
to  Mimster,  there  to  learn  the  intentions  of  the 
leaders  and  the  plans  of  the  Brethren  in  the 
north-west.  He  was  then  to  find  a  pretext  for 
again  leaving  the  city,  and,  returning  to  the 
Bishop,  was  to  divulge  his  information  to  him. 
The  suggestion  was  accepted,  and  Graess  was 
enabled  to  go.  Accordingly,  one  morning,  he 
presented  himself  with  chains  on  his  hands  to 
the  watchmen  at  the  gates  of  Miinster.  Speedily 
recognised,  he  was  received  with  open  arms  as 
the  last  survivor  of  the  unhappy  missionaries 
sent  out  in  the  autumn.  He  was  brought  before 
Jan  and  told  him  the  story  of  the  luckless  fate 
of  his  comrades  and  of  his  own  adventures. 
His  reputation,  high  before,  was  greater  still 
now,  and  he  became  more  than  ever  the  con- 
fidant of  the  King  of  Zion.  At  the  beginning 


300  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  January,  he  left  the  town  on  a  pretended 
mission  to  gather  together  the  Brethren  on  the 
Lower  Rhine  who  were  prepared  for  action,  to 
convene  them  at  Deventer,  and  there  to  set 
up  the  standard  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  receiving 
a  special  white  flag  from  King  Jan  for  this 
purpose.  Deventer  once  in  the  hands  of  the 
Brethren,  the  march  to  the  relief  of  Miinster 
was  to  be  undertaken.  As  soon  as  the  watch- 
men espied  from  the  walls  of  Miinster  the  white 
flag  indicating  the  approach  of  him  and  his  host, 
the  signal  within  the  town  was  to  be  given,  a 
sortie  made  in  full  force,  and  the  camp  of  the 
besiegers  thus  attacked  from  both  sides  at  once. 
Graess  left  Miinster  amid  the  blessings  of  its 
saints  and  prophets.  He  was,  however,  no  sooner 
outside  the  defensive  outworks,  than  he  made 
straight  for  the  Prince-Bishop's  quarters.  Here 
he  betrayed  all  the  plans  of  the  Munsterites 
and  their  Dutch  supporters.  Notwithstanding 
the  treachery  owing  to  which  the  Bishop  was 
enabled  to  circumvent  their  main  plan,  the  Ana- 
baptists succeeded,  as  we  know,  in  gaining  some 
headway  in  the  north-west  during  the  next  few 
months.  The  leading  events  connected  with  this 
movement  have  been  given  in  the  last  chapter. 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  301 

With  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the  movement 
in  question  in  May,  the  last  hope  of  relief  from 
without,  for  the  beleaguered  sectaries  in  Miinster, 
vanished. 

Already  in  April  the  condition  of  things  in 
the  town  was  very  desperate.  We  gain  some 
idea  of  what  it  was,  not  alone  from  Gresbeck, 
but  from  a  letter  sent  out  during  that  month 
by  the  Anabaptist  authorities  and  intercepted 
by  the  Bishop's  men.  Therein  we  read  of  women 
and  children  in  a  state  of  most  abject  destitution, 
crying  lamentably  in  the  streets,  of  many  who 
had  for  five  days  eaten  no  bread  and  lived  on 
weeds  and  grass.  The  necessity  to  which  the 
inhabitants  were  reduced,  of  slaughtering  the 
horses  for  food,  also  heavily  handicapped  the 
defence,  since  in  a  sortie  they  were  indispen- 
sable for  drawing  the  heavy  ordnance.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Bishop  had  at  length  succeeded 
in  rousing  the  Imperial  estates  to  come  to  his 
assistance,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the 
free  towns,  many  of  which  urged  negotiations 
with  Miinster,  offering  themselves  as  intermedia- 
ries, as  well  as  of  the  Protestant  princes  who 
were  unwilling  to  see  Miinster  irrevocably  given 
back  into  the  hands  of  the  papal  party.  A 


302  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

fruitless  attempt  at  bringing  about  a  cessation 
of  hostilities  was  in  fact  made  during  April  by 
the  biirgermeisters  of  Frankfurt  and  Niirnberg. 
Within  the  town,  as  the  weeks  went  on, 
famine  rose  higher  and  higher.  As  the  cats, 
rats,  mice  began  to  give  out,  the  people  took 
to  stewing  down  old  shoes,  skins,  the  leather- 
binding  of  books  and  the  bark  of  trees.  It 
now  became  necessary  to  dismiss  all  non-com- 
batants from  within  the  walls.  Some  of  these 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  were  put 
to  death,  while  others  were  interned  in  different 
towns  of  the  surrounding  country.  But  the  faith 
and  enthusiasm  of  the  combatants  was  inex- 
haustible. In  a  demand  made  by  the  commander 
of  Waldeck's  army  to  surrender,  the  leaders 
only  replied  that  they  were  resolved  to  fight 
for  the  truth  to  their  last  breath;  that  food 
would  not  be  lacking  for  them  so  long  as  they 
had  two  arms  left,  since  they  would,  if  necessary, 
devour  the  one  while  they  retained  the  other 
to  fight  the  enemies  of  God;  that  the  Saints 
of  God  were  ordained  to  destroy  the  fourth  blast 
of  the  Revelations,  which  signified  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  In  spite  of  everything,  indeed, 
the  town  continued  to  hold  out  against  the 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  303 

forces  representing  the  whole  of  the  mediaeval 
order  of  society,  political  social  and  religious. 
Force  alone  seemed  incapable  of  breaking  down 
the  resistance. 

At  length  treachery  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
powers  of  this  world  fighting  against  the  New 
Zion.  On  the  night  of  the  24th  of  May,  four 
free-lances,  among  them  an  officer  of  Jan's  body- 
guard, Johann  Eck  von  der  Langen  Straten, 
accompanied  by  the  citizen  and  guildsman  Hein- 
rich  Gresbeck — the  subsequent  bitterly  hostile 
chronicler  of  the  Anabaptist  regime  in  Miinster, 
and  our  chief  original  authority  for  the  events 
of  the  siege, — together  made  an  attempt  to 
escape  from  the  city. 

They  had  succeeded  in  climbing  the  earth- 
works of  the  besiegers  when,  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night,  Gresbeck  lost  sight  of  his  com- 
panions. Gresbeck  himself  was  soon  espied  by 
the  watchmen  alike  of  the  defenders  and  the 
besiegers,  and  summoned  to  surrender.  He  gave 
himself  up  to  the  Bishop's  free-lances,  from  whom 
he  begged  his  life,  and  who  brought  him  at 
his  entreaty  to  their  captain,  who  was  in  a 
block-house  hard  by.  Here,  where  one  of  his 
companions  was  shortly  after  brought  in,  he 


304  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

was  given  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  questioned 
as  to  the  condition  of  the  town  and  the  defective 
places  in  the  defence.  He  betrayed  everything 
he  knew  as  to  the  weakest  gates  and  least 
defensible  points  in  the  walls.  Meanwhile  Johann 
or  Hans  von  der  Langen  Straten  had  succeeded 
in  the  darkness  in  getting  through  the  lines, 
and  hearing  that  a  captain  of  free-lances,  Mey- 
nart  von  Hamm,  under  whom  he  had  formerly 
served,  was  in  the  camp  of  the  besiegers,  made 
straight  for  his  tent  and  revealed  to  him  the 
desperate  internal  condition  of  Mtinster  and,  as 
Gresbeck  had  done  in  the  other  case,  the  weak 
places  in  the  defensive  works,  besides  suggesting 
a  skilfully  devised  plan  for  taking  advantage 
of  them. 

He  undertook  to  introduce  the  besiegers  into 
the  town  for  a  stipulated  sum  of  money.  The 
Bishop  was  apprised  of  the  offer  made,  which 
he  agreed  to  eventually,  after  considerable 
hesitation.  Hans  and  Gresbeck  were  brought 
together,  and  directed  to  do  all  that  was  neces- 
sary for  surprising  the  town  according  to  the 
method  proposed  by  Hans. 

It  was  resolved  to  effect  the  entrance  on  the 
night  of  the  24th  of  June,  a  body  of  four  hundred 


SIUNSTEJTS  FALL.  305 

trained  soldiers  being  set  apart  for  the  purpose. 
An  abortive  summons  to  surrender  having  been 
made  in  the  course  of  the  day,  a  chosen  body 
of  men  set  out  on  their  march  to  Miinster  in 
the  midst  of  a  terrific  thunderstorm  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night.  The  traitor  Hans,  who  of  course 
knew  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  defence, 
conducted  his  men  to  near  one  of  the  gates 
which  was  weakly  garrisoned,  where  the  moat 
was  narrowest  and  contained  least  water.  A 
temporary  bridge  was  rigged  up  with  materials 
bought  for  the  purpose  by  Gresbeck,  across 
which  several  men  passed,  when  it  broke  down 
and  the  rest  had  to  swim.  Scaling-ladders 
were  placed  against  the  outer  wall,  and  the 
besiegers  were  soon  in  the  watch-houses,  which 
they  found  filled  with  sleeping  Anabaptists,  who 
were  all  immediately  massacred,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one,  from  whom  the  password  (which 
happened  to  be  u  earth ")  was  extorted. 

The  main  body  of  the  besieging  army  now 
began  to  move  towards  Miinster.  The  advance 
guard,  consisting  of  Hans  Eck's  men,  marched 
through  the  deserted  streets  to  the  Cathedral, 
which  they  occupied,  at  the  same  time  seizing 
the  reserve  ordnance  of  the  Anabaptists  together 


20 


306  ItfSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

with  a  large  quantity  of  ammunition  which  was 
kept  there.  They  had,  however,  omitted  the 
precaution  of  guarding  both  the  outer  and  the 
inner  gates,  which  were  closed  behind  them  by 
a  few  of  the  defenders  who  had  now  been 
aroused.  Gresbeck  with  a  few  companions,  in 
fact,  had  actually  been  caught  between  the  outer 
and  inner  walls  and  thus  had  been  prevented 
from  following  the  main  contingent.  On  perceiving 
by  the  beat  of  the  drums  that  the  enemy  was 
within  the  walls,  about  eight  hundred  Anabaptist 
combatants  gathered  together  on  the  Prinzipal- 
markt,  and  occupied  the  streets  leading  to  the 
Cathedral.  The  enemy  were  then  attacked  and 
driven  back  to  the  Jakobi  Church.  Meanwhile 
more  of  the  defenders  rolled  up  and  a  further 
onslaught  was  made.  The  enemy  being  consider- 
ably reduced  in  numbers,  were  forced  back  into 
a  narrow  street  which  would  have  been  a  cul- 
de-sac  but  for  a  small  door  in  the  wall,  which 
the  captain  of  the  free-lances  espying,  immedi- 
ately availed  himself  of  to  free  as  many  of  his 
men  as  had  time  to  force  a  passage  through. 
Those  who  thus  escaped  made  their  way  by 
by-lanes  again  to  the  Cathedral  close,  where 
they  reorganised  and  fell  upon  the  Anabaptists 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  307 

in  the  rear.  The  latter  who,  in  the  melee,  had 
not  noticed  the  turn  things  had  taken,  finding 
themselves  thus  suddenly  attacked  from  behind, 
thought  the  main  body  of  the  besieging  army 
had  effected  an  entrance.  They  in  their  turn 
were  now  thrown  into  some  confusion  and 
forced  to  retreat,  but,  quickly  rallying,  again 
inflicted  such  losses  on  the  enemy  that  by  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  free-lances  were  glad 
to  open  negotiations  with  the  King,  Jan  of 
Leyden,  during  the  course  of  which  an  armistice 
was  maintained.  The  time  was  utilised  by 
Steding,  their  leader,  to  send  one  of  his  men 
to  the  unguarded  portions  of  the  wall  to  make 
signs  that  succour  was  urgently  needed.  For 
meanwhile  Waldeck's  army,  on  its  arrival  before 
Miinster,  had  found  the  gates  and  walls  again 
well-manned.  Treachery  to  his  new  master 
being  suspected  on  the  part  of  Hans  Eck,  orders 
were  given  by  the  Commander-in-Chief  for  a 
retreat,  which  was  effected  amid  the  jeers  of  the 
defenders  on  the  wall. 

Steding's  emissaries  being  successful  in  making 
their  signals  understood  to  the  nearest  posts  of  the 
Bishop's  army,  an  order  was  given  for  a  renewed 
advance.  The  vanguard  succeeded  in  forcing 


3o8  XfSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

one  of  the  gates,  and  morning  light,  which  was 
now  breaking  upon  the  streets  of  Miinster,  saw 
the  free-lances  of  the  besieging  army  streaming 
into  the  city.  As  soon  as  Steding  heard  the 
well-known  signals,  and  his  messengers  returned 
with  the  news  that  the  Bishop's  army  was  enter- 
ing, he  forthwith  broke  off  negotiations  initiated 
with  Jan  of  Leyden  and  the  battle  began  anew. 
A  general  storm  of  the  town  was  now  made 
by  the  besiegers  from  six  different  points  at 
once.  Ever  fresh  bodies  of  the  Bishop's  free- 
lances poured  in  from  different  sides,  and,  before 
long,  virtually  the  whole  town  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  besiegers,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Prinzipalmarkt,  where  the  Anabaptists 
for  a  long  time  manfully  stood  their  ground. 
While  the  battle  was  proceeding,  one  of  the 
Bishop's  men-at-arms,  Johann  Roichel  by  name, 
forced  his  way  into  Jan  of  Leyden's  palace 
hard  by  the  Cathedral,  dashing  into  the  private 
audience-chamber  with  a  view  of  seizing  the 
King  himself,  and  was  just  in  time  to  see  the 
latter  escape  by  a  secret  door  in  the  wainscot- 
ing. On  his  attempting  to  follow  him,  Jan  threw 
his  helmet  in  the  way  and  succeeded  in  getting 
clear  of  the  building  and  making  for  the 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  309 

gate.  Roichel,  forcing  his  way  into  the  boudoir 
of  Jan's  principal  wife,  the  Queen  (so  called),  he 
compelled  her  to  surrender  to  him  the  regalia 
and  the  keys  of  all  the  gates  that  were  in  the 
King's  custody.  After  leaving  the  Palace,  Roi- 
chel was  felled  to  the  ground  by  an  Anabaptist, 
but,  recovering  himself,  succeeded  in  reaching 
one  of  the  commanders  of  the  besieging  army 
already  in  the  city  and  handing  the  keys  over 
to  him.  In  a  short  time  the  whole  of  the 
besieging  forces  were  streaming  in  at  all  the 
gates.  The  Anabaptists  fought  with  a  desperate 
courage,  even  the  women  joining  in  the  struggle, 
hurling  missiles  from  the  windows  upon  their 
foes.  Bernhardt  Krechting  and  Knipperdollinck 
were  to  the  fore  in  the  fray  on  the  Prinzipal- 
markt  and  round  the  Lamberti  Church,  where 
they  erected  a  stockade  of  wagons  as  their 
last  defence,  aided  by  two  or  three  pieces  of 
ordnance,  with  which  they  dealt  deadly  execu- 
tion for  a  long  time  on  the  enemy.  The  numbers 
of  their  followers  reduced  to  three  hundred  and 
Krechting  captured,  the  rest  threw  down  their 
arms  in  despair.  They,  in  fact,  accepted  an  offer 
made  at  this  moment,  to  surrender  their  position 
on  a  promise  of  a  safe  conduct  to  leave  the 


310  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

city,  a  fact  which  shewed  that  the  conquerors 
still  considered  them  not  un formidable.  Knipper- 
dollinck  had  already  succeeded  in  reaching  a 
place  of  safety,  for  the  time  being,  in  a  house 
near  the  town  wall.  Many  of  the  saints  had 
sought  refuge  in  the  Rathhaus,  which  was  imme- 
diately stormed  and  the  inmates  massacred. 

At  last  the  fighting  Anabaptists  were  reduced 
to  four  men  who  had  entrenched  themselves 
in  the  tower  of  the  Lamberti  Church.  Here 
they  for  some  time  bid  defiance  to  their  foes, 
killing  several  of  the  enemy  who  attempted 
to  reach  them.  The  tower  was  held  until  three 
of  their  number  had  fallen.  The  free-lances  at 
last  bursting  in,  seized  the  survivor  and  hurled 
him  down  on  to  the  street  below. 

By  mid-day  on  this  25th  of  June,  1535,  the 
city  of  Munster,  the  New  Zion,  passed  once  more 
into  the  hands  of  its  feudal  overlord,  Franz 
von  Waldeck.  The  Prince-Bishop  received  the 
news  of  the  capture  of  Munster  by  special  mes- 
senger at  six  o'clock  the  same  evening.  An 
atrocious  massacre  throughout  every  quarter 
of  the  town  now  ensued.  We  read  of  many 
thrown  from  windows  to  be  caught  on  the 

ij 

spears   of  the   free-lances  in  the  street   below. 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  3zi 

The  promise  of  safe  conduct  to  the  three  hun- 
dred who  had  surrendered  on  the  Prinzipal- 
markt  was  only  partially  effective.  Little  distinc- 
tion was  made  by  the  murderous,  plundering 
bands  of  'free-lances  between  these  and  others. 
All  alike,  irrespective  of  sex  or  age,  were  in- 
volved in  an  indiscriminate  butchery.  The 
greater  number  of  fighting  Anabaptists  lay  dead 
in  the  market-place  and  surrounding  streets.  Of 
the  leaders,  Hermann  Tylbeck,  who  was  seized  in 
the  ^Egidi  monastery,  was  immediately  murdered 
and  his  body  thrown  into  the  neighbouring  sewer. 
No  attempt  was  made  by  the  commanders  of 
the  Bishop's  army  to  stay  the  blood-lust  of  their 
men.  When  at  last  it  was  necessary  to  step 
in,  it  was  only  to  give  murder  a  legal  form. 
To  the  indiscriminate  massacre  wholesale  execu- 
tions succeeded.  Every  street  and  every  public 
building  were  filled  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain. 

o 

Jan  of  Leyden  on  his  escape  from  the 
Palace  had  taken  refuge  in  the  tower  over  the 
^Egidi  gate.  His  disappearance  was  the  cause 
of  great  annoyance  to  the  conquerors.  At 
length  his  whereabouts  were  betrayed  by  a 
boy,  and  the  free-lances  at  once  proceeded  to 
seize  him.  As  they  appeared  he  adjured  them 


312  £ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

not  to  lay  hands  on  the  Lord's  anointed. 
They  immediately  fell  upon  him  with  the  words, 
"  If  thou  canst  do  ought,  straw  King,  free  thyself 
from  our  hands!"  Tearing  the  heavy  gold  chain 
from  his  neck,  they  carried  him  back,  bound,  to 
the  Palace.  Bernhardt  Krechting,  the  chief  coun- 
sellor of  the  King,  (who  had  been  captured  in 
the  fight  on  the  market-place)  was  also  kept  in 
confinement.  His  brother  Heinrich  Krechting 
succeeded  in  breaking-out  of  the  doomed  city 
with  the  remains  of  the  little  band  who  surren- 
dered on  the  promise  of  safe  conduct.  The 
u  minister  of  justice  "  of  the  New  Zion,  Knipper- 
dollinck,  had  disappeared  and  could  nowhere  be 
found,  and  since,  owing  to  the  close  watch  which 
was  kept  on  all  the  city  gates,  it  was  consid- 
ered impossible  that  he  could  have  escaped,  it 
was  concluded  that  he  must  be  still  in  the  town. 
Having  been  reported  as  last  seen  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  so-called  uNew"  Gate,  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  army,  Ulrich  von  Dhaun, 
gave  orders  for  all  the  surrounding  houses  to 
be  searched.  Knipperdollinck  had,  in  fact,  first 
concealed  himself  in  a  small  house  in  the  city- 
wall,  whence  he  had  attempted  to  gain  the  open 
during  the  night.  He  had  succeeded  in  getting 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  313 

over  the  wall,  but  finding  the  moat  too  deep, 
returned  again  to  the  town.  All  the  women 
dwelling  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  "  New " 
Gate  were  now  ordered  to  appear  on  the  mar- 
ket-place and  given  the  alternative  of  either 
betraying  Knipperdollinck  or  leaving  the  city. 
Knipperdollinck's  landlady,  who  was  among 
them,  chose  the  former  course.  A  detachment 
of  fifty  men  was  at  once  told  off  to  arrest  the 
great  Anabaptist  leader.  As  a  reward  for  her 
treachery  the  woman  was  given  the  freedom  of 
the  town  and  her  house  spared  plundering,  but 
her  husband  was  beheaded  in  the  Lamberti 
churchyard. 

The  fate  of  Bernhardt  Rothmann  is  unknown. 
It  is  generally  supposed  that  he  was  killed  in 
the  street-fighting,  and  Dr.  Ludwig  Keller  seems 
to  be  of  this  opinion,  but  his  body  was  never 
found,  although  every  search  was  made  for  it. 
Fabrizius  Roland,  in  his  account  of  the  Miinster 
rising,  informs  us  that  a  doctor  of  the  town, 
Gerhardt  Marcellus  by  name,  had  informed  him 
that  Rothmann  had  escaped  into  Friesland, 
where  he  had  taken  refuse  in  the  house  of  a 

o 

friendly  nobleman.     Another  report  at  the  time 
indicated    the    town   of  Lubeck  as  his  place  of 


314  KfSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

concealment.  The  authorities  at  Liibeck,  on  being 
communicated  with,  denied  that  he  was  there. 
They  alleged,  however,  that  he  had  been  seen 
in  Rothstock,  but  at  the  time  of  replying  had 
disappeared  from  thence,  leaving  no  trace  behind 
him.  It  has  been  suggested  that  he  may  possibly 
have  taken  ship  from  the  last  mentioned  town 
to  Sweden,  and  found  an  asylum  with  certain 
friends  to  the  cause  that  Knipperdollinck  had 
made  there  during  his  sojourn  in  the  year  1524. 
In  any  case,  so  far  as  certainty  is  concerned,  the 
fate  of  Rothmann  is  likely  to  remain  an  histori- 
cal mystery. 

Four  days  after  the  conquest  of  the  town,  the 
Prince-Bishop,  Franz  von  Waldeck,  made  his 
official  entry  into  Miinster.  Steding,  the  leader 
of  the  Free-lances,  marched  out  to  meet  his 
master  at  the  head  of  eight  hundred  of  his  men. 
He  then  formerly  handed  over  to  him  the  gold 
chain,  the  sword,  and  the  spurs  of  the  King  of 
Zion,  together  with  the  keys  of  the  city.  Miinster 
presented  a  terrible  aspect  after  four  days  of 
pillage  and  massacre,  with  its  ruined  houses,  its 
heaps  of  corpses,  and  its  hunger-stricken  popula- 
tion. Waldeck,  however,  only  remained  in  the 
city  two  days,  since  Nemesis  in  the  shape  of 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  315 

the  plague  followed  close  on  the  inhumanity  of 
the  conquerors.  The  traitor  Hans  Eck  von  der 
Langen  Straten,  on  claiming  his  share  of  the 
booty,  was  repudiated  with  contempt  for  the 
role  he  had  played  by  the  very  free-lances  whom 
he  had  led  into  the  city.  He  went  off  with  his 
booty,  but  died  shortly  after  from  the  effects  of 
a  wound  he  had  received  in  an  altercation  with 
one  of  his  own  men.  The  mercenary  troops,  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  garrison  left  in  the 
town,  were  before  long:  disbanded. 

O 

A  court  was  now  established  for  the  trial  of 
those  who  held  Anabaptist  views.  The  women 
were  for  the  most  part  given  the  alternative  of 
formally  recanting  their  faith  or  being  banished 
the  town.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  those 
who  were  steadfast  were  executed,  among  them 
being  Divara,  Jan  of  Leyden's  "  Queen,"  who 
heroically  confessed  herself  to  remain  a  rebap- 
tized  daughter  of  Zion.  She  was  beheaded  in 
the  Cathedral  close.  All  the  male  inhabitants 
of  Munster  who  had  been  in  any  way  prominent 
during  the  late  regime,  fared  similarly.  Bockelson 
himself,  Knipperdollinck,  and  Bernhardt  Krecht- 
ing,  as  the  leaders  of  the  whole  movement,  were 
reserved  for  a  more  cruel  fate.  The  Prince- 


3i6  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

Bishop  had  Jan  brought  to  him  to  Yburg,  where 
his  quarters  were.  On  Bockelson  being  led  be- 
fore him,  Waldeck  mockingly  asked  him,  u  Art 
thou  a  King?"  To  which  Jan  replied,  "  Artthou 
a  Bishop?"  On  being  further  interrogated  with 
what  right  he  had  usurped  power  over  the 
inhabitants  of  Miinster,  he  again  replied  by 
demanding  of  his  conqueror,  u  Who  hath  given 
thee  right  and  power  over  the  city  of  Miinster  ?" 
On  the  Bishop's  replying  that  he  had  been 
elected  by  the  Cathedral  Chapter  and  had  been 
confirmed  in  his  position  by  the  Pope  and  Em- 
peror, Jan  rejoined,  "  And  I  have  been  called  to 
the  leadership  by  God  and  his  Prophets."  Wal- 
deck then  reproached  Bockelson  with  the  suf- 
ferings he  had  brought  upon  his  people  and 
the  heavy  losses  he  had  occasioned  the  diocese. 
The  prisoner  once  more  replied  that,  so  far  as 
he  was  concerned,  he  would  have  held  out  till, 
together  with  his  people,  he  had  perished  of 
hunger,  rather  than  have  surrendered  the  New 
Zion  to  the  godless.  For  the  rest,  Waldeck  could 
get  back  his  costs  if  he  would  imprison  him  in 
a  cage  and  let  him  be  shewn  to  the  curious ; 
the  tribute  of  a  gulden  from  every  one  anxious 
to  see  the  King  of  Zion  would  bring  in  money 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  317 

not  merely  sufficient  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the 
campaign,  but  to  pay  all  Waldeck's  private  debts 
as  well.  "  Good,"  replied  the  Bishop,  u  I  will  shut 
thee  up  in  a  cage  indeed,  but  otherwise  than  as 
thou  hopest!"  Jan  Bockelson  of  Leyden,  Prophet 
and  King  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  was  accordingly 
enclosed  in  an  iron  cage  and  transported  from  town 
to  town,  and  from  village  to  village,  in  the  charge 
of  a  guard  of  free-lances,  to  be  exposed  in  the 
market-places.  In  the  course  of  his  journey  ings, 
it  is  related  by  Conrad  Heresbach  in  his  "  Ge- 
schichte  der  Miinsterischcn  Wiedertdufer-rotte" 
that  he  was  brought  to  Duke  John  of  Cleves, 
who  is  stated  to  have  asked  him  what  had 
originally  led  him  to  go  to  Miinster,  to  which 
Bockelson  answered  that  the  spirit  had  revealed 
to  him  that  Miinster  was  destined  to  be  the 
Heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  that  he  himself  should 
accomplish  great  things  there.  In  order  to  as- 
sure himself  of  the  truth  of  this  revelation,  he 
had  visited  Krechting  on  his  way,  and  had  cured 
a  sick  serving-maid  in  his  house.  In  Miinster 
itself  a  vision  appeared  to  him  in  his  bed-chamber, 
that  a  silversmith  from  Holland  should  be  killed 
in  the  fighting  outside  Miinster,  and  that  he 
himself  received  the  command  of  God  to  marry 


3i8  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

his  widow.  Finally,  Bockelson  was  cast  in  chains 
into  one  of  Waldeck's  castles,  Krechting  and 
Knipperdollinck  being  imprisoned  elsewhere 
While  in  prison  an  attempt  was  made  to  induce 
the  stalwart  Anabaptist  leaders  to  recant.  Sun- 
dry theologians  were  sent  for  this  purpose  to 
discourse  with  them,  but  without  result.  It  is 
alleged,  indeed,  on  the  part  of  the  authorities 
that  Jan  made  certain  concessions,  apparently 
in  the  hope  of  saving  his  life.  Whether  this 
report  be  true  or  not,  coming  as  it  does  from 
prejudiced  sources,  we  have  no  means  of  judging. 
But  even  these  witnesses  admit  that,  in  principal, 
he  remained  unshakable. 

After  an  imprisonment  of  six  months,  the  three 
Anabaptist  leaders  were,  on  the  igth  of  January, 
1536,  brought  back  to  Minister,  there  to  go 
through  the  farce  of  a  final  trial  and  to  suffer 
execution.  The  latter  event  we  relate  in  the  words 
of  the  courtly  chronicler  of  the  Anabaptist  history 
of  Miinster,  Kerssenbroick  (II.  page  212).  The 
scene  took  place  on  the  22nd  of  January,  1536,  on 
the  Prinzipalmarkt,  in  the  presence  of  the  Prince- 
Bishop  and  a  number  of  clerical  and  temporal  dig- 
nitaries. "The  executioners  first  of  all  enclosed 
the  King  in  a  collar  of  iron,"  writes  Kerssen- 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  319 

broick  and  bound  him  to  a  stake.  Thereupon 
they  seized  glowing  pincers  and  fettled  him  on 
all  fleshy  and  other  parts  of  his  body,  in  such 
wise  that  the  flame  shot  out  and  such  a  stench 
arose  that  those  on  the  market  could  not  bear  it. 
A  like  punishment  did  the  others  suffer,  albeit 
they  bore  this  torment  with  less  patience  than 
the  King,  and  made  known  their  pain  with  much 
lamentation  and  crying."  The  official  chronicler 
goes  on  to  describe  how  Knipperdollinck  sought 
to  strangle  himself  with  the  collar  that  bound 
him  to  the  stake,  and  how  the  executioners, 
seeing  this,  tied  his  head  fast  to  the  stake  with 
a  cord  passed  through  his  teeth,  and  how,  after 
these  unhappy  martyrs  to  the  doctrine  of  Ana- 
baptism  had  been  tortured  as  above  long  enough 
to  satiate  the  blood-thirst  of  their  persecutors, 
their  tongues  were  torn  out  and  they  were 
pierced  to  the  heart  with  a  dagger.  The  bodies 
of  Jan  of  Leyden  and  his  companions  were,  as 
is  well  known,  placed  in  cages  (probably  the 
same  in  which  they  had  been  borne  living  as 
a  public  spectacle)  and  these  were  hung  to  the 
tower  of  the  Lamberti  Church,  where  they  remain- 
ed undisturbed  until  a  few  years  ago.  The  old 
tower  having  then  become  structurally  unsafe, 


320  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

had  to  be  pulled  down  and  was,  with  question- 
able taste,  replaced  by  an  ordinary  modern 
steeple,  on  which,  however,  the  original  cages 
may  still  be  seen. 

The  conventional  historian,  in  his  conventional 
hatred  of  the  old  militant  Anabaptism  with  its 
communistic  tendencies,  and  writing  as  he  does 
in  the  interest  of  the  possessing  classes  of  his 
own  day,  has  been  found  not  ashamed  to  con- 
done, or  even  to  justify,  this  fiendish  and 
atrocious  crime  perpetrated  by  the  dominant 
classes  of  a  bygone  age.  And  this,  be  it 
remembered,  is  the  same  conventional  historian 
who,  when  writing  of  the  French  Revolution,  can 
gasp  in  horror  over  the  September  massacres 
or  the  Reign  of  Terror,  or,  when  treating  of  more 
recent  events  in  French  history,  can  similarly 
maunder,  shuddering  at  the  execution  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  by  the  communards  of  1871. 
Verily  the  ethical  judgments  of  the  conventional 
historian  are  wonderful  and  past  finding  out  on 
any  theory  of  ethical  logic  hitherto  accepted. 
The  doctrine  of  the  u  class-struggle "  as  the 
basis  of  ethical  as  of  other  judgments  alone 
makes  their  real  meaning  clear. 

The    extinction    of  the   Kingdom    of  God    in 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  321 

Miinster  meant  practically  the  end  of  militant 
Anabaptism.  The  slaughter  of  Anabaptists  under 
the  form  of  public  execution  was  fearful  in  the 
territory  owning  allegiance  to  the  inhuman 
monster  Franz  von  Waldeck. 

A  papal  legate  sent  on  a  mission  to  Miinster 
shortly  after  the  events  in  question,  relates  that 
as  he  and  his  retinue  neared  the  latter  town  u  more 
and  more  gibbets  and  wheels  did  we  see  on  the 
highways  and  in  the  villages  where  the  false 
prophets  and  Anabaptists  had  suffered  for  their 
sins."  He  remarks  that  the  Prince-Bishop  of 
Miinster  seemed  more  like  a  captain  of  war 
than  a  spiritual  Prince.  He  received  them,  he 
says,  in  his  castle  near  Miinster,  in  the  costume  of 
a  military  commander,  and  the  next  day  he  es- 
corted them  with  warlike  array  into  the  city 
itself.  But,  notwithstanding  wholesale  slaughters 
and  executions,  numbers  of  fugitives  from  the 
fallen  city  of  the  Saints  succeeded  in  reaching 
distant  lands.  Many  are  said  to  have  come 
over  to  England  and  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
next  chapter,  Anabaptists,  and  Anabaptism,  first 
came  into  prominent  notice  in  England  shortly 
after  this  time. — The  disciples  of  the  militant 
Anabaptism  which  had  made  Miinster  their 

21 


322  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

stronghold  never  again  attained  to  more  than 
local  prominence.  There  were,  nevertheless,  a 
few  attempts  during  the  succeeding  half  century 
at  insurrection  in  the  interest  of  Anabaptism. 
Thus,  in  the  summer  of  1548,  an  effervescence 
manifested  itself  again  in  the  Miinster  territories, 
and  in  this,  and  the  following  year,  there  were 
disturbances  and  many  attempts  at  arson.  Nume- 
rous executions,  amongst  them  that  of  the 
Miinster  Prophet  Dusentschur's  sister  Margaret, 
did  not  mend  matters.  The  agitation  continued, 
and  became  so  threatening  that  in  October 
1556  the  Prince-Bishop  engaged  bodies  of  free- 
lances to  clear  the  districts  of  its  Anabaptist 
elements.  Each  man  was  paid  a  wage  of  four 
thalers  a  month,  with  twenty  thalers  premium 
for  every  Anabaptist  prisoner  brought  in.  This 
seems  to  have  had  the  effect  of  suppressing 
the  movement  for  the  time  being.  Little  more 
was  heard  of  militant  Anabaptism  in  West- 
phalia till  the  year  1574,  when  a  certain  Johann 
Wilmsen,  the  son  of  a  preacher  who  after  the 
capture  of  Miinster  had  escaped  into  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Duke  of  Cleves,  proclaimed  him- 
self a  new  King  of  Zion.  He  followed  closely 
the  doctrine  and  practice  of  Jan  of  Leyden,  inclu- 


MUNSTE&S  FALL.  323 

ding  communism  and  polygamy.  He  gathered 
together  some  three  thousand  fighting  men 
around  him,  and  for  some  time  successfully 
devastated  Westphalia  and  its  surrounding  dis- 
tricts, attacking,  not  without  success,  castles  and 
other  strongholds  of  the  nobility.  For  five  years 
he  set  the  constituted  authorities  at  defiance. 
Wilmsen  was  at  last  seized  in  the  territory  of 
Jiilich.  After  a  period  of  imprisonment  he  was 
burnt  alive  on  the  market  at  Cleves  on  the 
1 2th  of  March,  1580.  In  the  absence  of  fuller 
and  more  impartial  information  concerning  Wilm- 
sen, it  is  difficult  to  say  with  certainty  whether 
he  was  a  genuine  fanatic  of  the  type  of  the 
Munster  prophets,  or  whether  we  have  to  do 
with  a  charletan  who  used  the  name  and  doc- 
trine of  Anabaptism  as  a  cloak  for  mere  plun- 
der and  brigandage.  It  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten in  this  connection,  that  he  stedfastly  denied 
to  the  last  the  excesses  alleged  against  him, 
and  that  our  information  concerning-  him  comes 

O 

exclusively  from  hostile  sources. 

We  have  seen  that  from  the  time  Anabap- 
tism began  to  spread  to  any  extent,  there  were 
two  currents  in  the  party;  the  one  taking  the 
original  anti-physical  force  and  mainly  theolo- 


324  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

gical  direction;  the  other,  more  definitely  poli- 
tical, which  implicitly  or  explicitly  recognised 
the  justifiability  and  even  the  duty  of  a  resort 
to  carnal  weapons  in  the  battle  against  the  god- 
less powers  ol  this  world.  For  a  long  time  the 
original  pacific  current  maintained  the  ascen- 
dency, until  a  persistent  and  merciless  persecu- 
tion gradually,  in  the  opening  years  of  the 
fourth  decade  of  the  century,  gave  to  that  tend- 
ing in  the  opposite  direction  a  vast  increase 
in  power,  while  with  Matthys,  Bockelson,  and 
the  success  of  the  movement  identified  with 
them  throughout  the  North-Western  territories 
of  the  empire,  it  became  for  the  time  being 
dominant  throughout  the  Anabaptist  world. 

The  effect  of  the  fall  of  Miinster  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  reign  of  the  Saints  was  to  give  the 
pacific  and  non-resistant  elements  within  the  party 
an  impetus  which  caused  them  finally  to  regain 
their  original  ascendency .  In  spite  of  the  flicker- 
ings  of  the  militant  Anabaptism  above  referred 
to  as  having  taken  place  in  Westphalia  and  the 
neighbouring  districts  on  different  occasions 
during  the  next  half  century,  Anabaptism  never 
again  achieved  anything  as  an  independent 
political  force.  What  is  more,  the  social  side  of 


MUNSTE&S  FALL.  325 

the  movement,  which  had  previously  been  recog- 
nised by  both  sections  alike,  tended  more  and 
more  to  fall  into  the  background  in  favour  of 
purely  theological  interests. 

The  old  family-communism  among  the  faithful, 
founded  on  what  was  believed  to  have  been 
the  practice  of  Apostolic  times,  ceased  to  be 
insisted  upon.  Already,  in  a  Congress  held  in 
August  1536  at  Bockholt,  the  advocates  of  pacific 
tendencies  gained  a  decided  victory  over  the 
militant  section.  An  extreme  moderate  party 
called  the  "  Obbenites,"  after  its  founder,  one 
Obbe-Philipps,  attained  increasing  influence.  It 
taught,  as  one  of  its  leading  tenets,  that  no  other 
social  and  political  conditions  than  those  already 
established  were  to  be  looked  for  here  below, 
and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Saints  to  accept 
them  in  all  humility  as  the  dispensation  of  God. 

The  new  direction  was  strengthened  by  the 
ability  and  influence  of  a  new  recruit,  Menno 
Simon.  Simon,  who  was  born  in  Friesland  in 
1492,  had  been  a  Catholic  priest.  Some  author- 
ities state  that  he  did  not  definitely  join  the 
party  till  1536,  though  he  seems  to  have  had 
relations  of  some  kind  with  the  movement  for 
three  or  four  years  previously,  having  supported 


326  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  teaching  of  the  moderate  and  non-political 
section  in  1533  against  Jan  Matthys,  whose  star 
was  then  in  the  ascendant.  Menno  Simon's  brother, 
it  should  be  mentioned,  had  died  bravely  fighting 
for  his  co-religionists,  as  one  of  the  crusaders 
who  set  out  in  the  spring  of  1535  in  the  forlorn 
hope  of  relieving  Munster.  Whether  he  had 
already  joined  the  movement  before  or  not, 
Menno  in  any  case  first  became  recognised  as 
a  leader  of  the  party  from  the  time  of  the 
Bockholt  Congress  of  1536.  The  moderate 
section  thenceforward  began  to  take  the  name 
of  Mennonites.  They  were  opposed  by  the 
Batenburgers,  the  followers  of  Johannes  Baten- 
burg,  the  blirgermeister  of  a  small  Dutch  town, 
who  had  recently  joined  the  party,  and  after  the 
fall  of  Munster  became  the  leader  of  the  revolu- 
tionary political  section.  Batenburg  was  executed 
m  J537  in  the  Netherlands,  and,  as  already 
remarked,  the  tendency  in  the  party  represented 
by  him  and  his  followers  rapidly  and  steadily 
declined  in  influence  and  numbers.  In  addition 
to  Menno  Simon,  David  Georg,  or  Joris,  as  he  is 
sometimes  called,  one  of  the  apostles  sent  out 
from  Munster  by  Jan  of  Leyden  in  the  autumn 
of  1534,  now  came  prominently  to  the  fore  as 


MUNSTER'S  FALL,  327 

a  leader.  He  seems  at  first  to  have  endeavoured 
to  unite  the  two  sections,  but  later  on  his 
influence  was  thrown  entirely  on  the  side  of 
the  prevalent  non-political  tendencies.  We  shall 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  the  subsequent  career 
of  David  Georg  in  the  next  chapter,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Anabaptist  movement  in  England, 
for  it  was  in  the  form  of  his  teaching  as  modi- 
fied by  Henry  Nicholas  that  Anabaptism  for 
the  most  part  took  root  in  this  country.  As 
regards  the  socio-political  question,  Georg  or 
Joris,  unlike  the  Mennonites  who  repudiated  all 
notion  of  socio-political  change  in  this  world, 
made  a  concession  to  the  extreme  party  (so- 
called)  in  professing  to  believe  in  the  ultimate 
acceptance  of  Anabaptist  teaching  by  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth,  who  would  then  voluntarily 
lay  down  their  wealth  and  privileges,  and  thus 
the  ideal  of  the  reign  of  the  Saints  on  earth 
would  be  pacifically  inaugurated.  Both  Joris 
and  Simon  succeeded  in  dying  in  the  odour  of 
peaceful  and  well-to-do  middle-class  respectability. 
Joris  certainly  had  to  adopt  an  assumed  name 
in  order  to  live  unmolested  in  prosperous 
circumstances  as  an  esteemed  burgher  of  the 
town  of  Basel.  (See  next  chapter.)  Menno,  on 


328  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

the  other  hand,  had  no  occasion  for  such  sub- 
terfuges. The  harmlessness — nay,  utility  for  the 
governing  classes — of  teaching  which  insisted 
on  submission  to  the  powers  that  be  as  a 
Christian  duty,  became  at  length  recognised  by 
the  temporal  authorities  within  whose  juris- 
diction he  worked,  and  Menno  Simon  was  allowed 
not  only  to  live  and  die  in  peace,  but  also  found 
time  and  opportunity  to  amass  a  not  inconsider- 
able fortune.  David  Georg  or  Joris  died  in 
1556  in  Basel,  and  Menno  Simon  in  1559  at 
Aldesloe  in  Holstein,  on  the  estate  of  a  nobleman 
in  that  territory,  who,  in  the  course  of  a  military 
career  in  the  Netherlands,  having  come  into 
contact  with  the  Anabaptists  of  Menno's  school, 
had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  their  thrift, 
sobriety,  industry,  and  the  virtues  generally 
associated  with  a  thriving  community  of  handi- 
craftsmen, and  in  consequence  had  offered  the 
lands  within  his  jurisdiction  as  a  home  for  their 
leader  and  as  many  of  the  rank  and  file  as 
liked  to  settle  there.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
1 6th  century  the  Anabaptist  communities  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  from  Moravia  on  the  one 
hand,  to  the  extreme  of  north-west  Germany  on 
the  other,  began  to  settle  down,  as  a  rule,  into 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  329 

law-abiding  and  generally  prosperous,  religious 
organisations.  The  old  persecution,  although 
now  and  again  feebly  flickering  up  under  the 
pressure  of  local  circumstances,  never  more 
became  general  or  sufficient  to  seriously  threaten 
the  existence  of  the  communities.  Even  the 
Netherlands,  where  in  earlier  times  religious  per- 
secution had  raged  with  such  intense  fury,  became, 
after  their  liberation  from  the  house  of  Habs- 
burg,  a  safe  asylum  for  all  Protestant  sects, 
the  Anabaptist  included.  By  this  time  almost 
the  whole  of  the  Anabaptist  sectaries  of  these 
regions  had  accepted  the  teaching  of  Menno 
Simon,  and  hence  the  two  appellations  Ana- 
baptist and  Mennonite  had  become  practically 
synonymous,  the  older  one,  in  fact,  tending  to 
fall  into  disuse.  Towards  the  end  of  the  century 
the  Mennonites  began  to  be  openly  tolerated,  and 
their  meetings  unmolested,  in  the  low  countries. 
In  1626  they  were  officially  recognised  as  a 
religious  body  with  the  right  to  freedom  of 
worship,  and  as  such  they  exist  to  this  day. 
A  similar  fate  has  befallen  the  Moravians  and 
other  fractions  of  the  once  powerful  and  wide- 
spread Anabaptist  party  so  dreaded  by  those 
in  authority. 


330  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

The  Anabaptist  revolt  of  the  fourth  decade 
of  the  1 6th  century  is  commonly  regarded  as 
a  kind  of  continuation  or  recrudescence  of  the 
great  peasant  revolt  of  the  previous  decade. 
There  is,  of  course,  much  of  truth  in  this  view. 
Both  movements  sprang  from  like  economic 
causes,  and  both  movements  represented  sub- 
stantially the  same  order  of  thought  as  regards 
their  ideal  expressions.  There  was,  however,  a 
difference  between  the  two  movements  in  respect 
of  the  classes  engaged  in  them.  The  revolt 
of  1524 — 25  was  predominantly  an  agrarian 
and  a  peasant  movement,  although  it  was  power- 
fully assisted  by  the  poorer  handicraftsmen  and 
disinherited  classes  generally  dwelling  within 
the  walled  towns.  It  was  the  peasantry  in  this 
case  which  took  the  lead  and  initiated  the 
movement  in  almost  every  instance.  The  Ana- 
baptist movement  of  ten  years  later  was,  on 
the  contrary,  predominantly  a  townsman's  move- 
ment, although,  coinciding  as  its  objects  did  with 
the  aspirations  of  the  peasantry,  it  had  a  con- 
siderable support  from  among  them.  The  Ana- 
baptists leaders  were  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Peasants  War,  in  the  main  drawn  from  the  class 
of  the  uman  that  wields  the  hoe"  (to  paraphrase 


MUNSTER'S  FALL.  331 

the  phraseology  of  the  time) :  they  were  tailors, 
smiths,  bakers,  shoemakers  or  carpenters.  They 
belonged,  in  short,  to  the  class  of  the  organised 
handicraftsmen  and  journeymen  who  worked 
within  city  walls.  One  figure,  however,  is  promi- 
nent in  both  movements  alike,  if,  perhaps,  not 
so  much  in  the  latter  as  in  the  earlier,  and  that 
is  the  ex-priest  or  preacher,  the  man  who  for- 
mulated the  social  discontent  of  the  time  in  the 
guise  of  its  prevalent  theological  conceptions. 

After  the  close  of  the  i6th  century,  Ana- 
baptism  lost  all  politico-social  importance  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  It  had,  however,  a  certain 
afterglow  in  this  country,  during  the  following 
century,  notably  up  to  the  time  of  the  Civil 
Wars  and  the  Commonwealth.  With  this  subject, 
with  the  influence,  that  is,  of  Anabaptism  and 
allied  doctrines  in  England  during  the  i6th  and 
1 7th  centuries,  we  shall  proceed  to  deal  in  the 
following  chapter. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   ANABAPTIST   MOVEMENT   IN   ENGLAND. 

ANABAPTISM  would  seem  to  have  been  intro- 
duced into  England  a  few  years  after  its  origin 
in  Zurich,  but  precisely  how,  when,  or  by  whom 
is  difficult  to  determine.  Its  appearance  in  this 
country  was  heralded,  we  gather,  by  a  book 
entitled  "  The  Sum  of  Scripture,"  many  extracts 
from  which  were  formally  condemned  by  an 
assembly  of  Bishops  and  other  theologians,  con- 
vened by  Archbishop  Warham  at  the  command 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  in  1530.  Two  proclama- 
tions for  heresy  were  the  outcome  of  this  con- 
vention. The  seeds  of  certain  heresies,  it  was 
declared,  had  been  sown  uby  the  disciples  of 
Luther  and  other  heretics,  perverters  of  Christ's 
religion."  Severe  punishments  were  threatened 
u  against  those  malicious  and  wicked  sects  of 
heretics  who,  by  perversion  of  Holy  Scripture,  do 
induce  erroneous  opinions,  sow  sedition  amongst 
Christian  people,  and  finally  disturb  the  peace 
and  tranquillity  of  Christian  realms,  as  lately 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENTIN  ENGLAND.  333 

happened  in  some  parts  of  Germany,  where,  by 
the  procurement  and  sedition  of  Martin  Luther 
and  other  heretics,  were  slain  an  infinite  number 
of  Christian  people."  1 

The  "other  heretics"  referred  to  in  the  above 
extracts  may  reasonably  be  assumed  to  have 
been  Anabaptists  or  teachers  of  similar  ten- 
dency, whilst  the  allusion  to  the  disturbance  of 
the  peace  lately  in  some  parts  of  Germany  has 
clearly  in  view  the  Peasants  War  of  1525,  which 
was  attributed  to  the  pernicious  effects  of  the 
new  doctrines  that  by  this  time  (1530)  had  been 
well-nigh  all  absorbed  into  the  Anabaptist  move- 
ment. The  sentiments  indicated  can  hardly  refer 
to  any  other  sect  or  body. 

Two  years  before  the  English  Church  Council, 
in  1528,  we  hear  of  seven  Anabaptists  hailing 
from  Holland  having  been  arrested  and  thrown 
into  prison,  and  of  two  of  them  being  subse- 
quently burned.  '  This  would  seem  to  indicate 

1Wilkin's  "Concilia,"  tome  III.  p.  737.  The  italics  in  the 
quotations  are  the  present  author's. 

2  This  statement  is  to  be  found  in  Henry  D'Anvers' 
"Treatise  of  Baptism,"  second  edition,  1674,  but  I  have 
been  unable  to  confirm  it  in  detail  from  contemporary 
authorities. 


334  &ISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

that  Anabaptism  was  introduced  into  England 
from  Lower  Rhenish  rather  than  directly  from 
the  original  Swiss  or  south  German  sources,  and 
these  seven  persons  may  well  have  been  the 
actual  protagonists  of  Anabaptism  in  England. 
In  the  year  in  which  Henry  obtained  recog- 
nition of  his  claims  as  supreme  Head  of  the 
Church  (1535),  two  edicts  were  issued  against 
Anabaptists  and  Sacramentaries.  u  Many  of  the 
King's  loving  subjects,"  it  was  alleged,  "had 
been  induced  and  encouraged  arrogantly  and 
superstitiously  to  argue  and  dispute  in  open 
places,  taverns,  and  ale-houses,  not  only  upon 
baptism,  but  also  upon  the  Holy  Sacrament  of 
the  altar."  Concerning  the  King's  purposes 
towards  such,  we  are  informed,  "forasmuch  as 
divers  and  sundry  strangers  of  the  sect  and  false 
opinion  of  the  Anabaptists  and  Sacramentaries, 
being  lately  come  into  this  realm,  where  they 
lurk  secretly  in  divers  corners  and  places, 
minding  craftily  and  subtilly  to  provoke  and  stir 
the  King's  loving  subjects  to  their  errors  and 
opinions,  whereof  part  of  them  by  the  great 
travail  and  diligence  of  the  King's  Highness 
and  His  Council  be  apprehended  and  taken,  the 
King's  Most  Royal  Majesty  declareth like 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  335 

a  godly  and  Catholic  Prince,  that  he  abhorreth 
and  detesteth  the  same  sects  and  their  wicked 
and  abominable  errors,  and  intendeth  to  proceed 
against  such  of  them  as  be  already  apprehended 
according  to  their  merits  and  the  laws  of  the 
realm."  Those  who  continued  recalcitrant  were 
also  commanded  to  depart  from  the  Kingdom 
in  eight  or  ten  days. 

This  first  proclamation  does  not  seem  to  have 
had  much  effect,  since  we  find  it  followed  up 
not  long  after  by  another,  wherein  it  is  stated 
that  many  strangers  baptised  in  infancy,  but 
contemning  that  Holy  Sacrament,  had  presump- 
tuously re-baptised  themselves,  and  entering  the 
King's  dominions  had  everywhere  spread  their 
pestilent  heresies  "  against  God  and  His  Holy 
Scriptures,  to  the  great  unquietness  of  Christen- 
dom and  perdition  of  innumerable  Christian  souls." 
A  great  number,  it  says,  had  already  been 
judicially  convicted,  and  the  rest  u  shall  for  the 
same  suffer  the  pains  of  death."  Another  clause 
somewhat  modifies  this  by  enacting  the  banish- 
ment of  all  such  heretics  within  twelve  days  on 
pain  of  death.  (Wilkin,  "  Consilia,"  tome  III. 
p.  759).  In  the  year  following  these  proclama- 
tions, we  find  records  of  ten  persons  having 


336   RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS, 

been  put  to  death  in  accordance  with  their  pro- 
visions in  various  parts  of  the  Kingdom,  and  of 
ten  others  having  saved  themselves  by  a  timely 
recantation. 

Two  years  later,  in  1538,  great  efforts  were 
made  to  expel  those  holding  Anabaptist  views 
from  the  country,  and  otherwise  to  root  out 
the  heresy.  Evidence  of  communication  with 
the  continental  sectaries  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
lishmen holding  similar  doctrines,  was  afforded 
by  certain  letters  found  on  one  of  the  German 
Brethren,  by  name  Peter  Tasch,  who  was  ap- 
prehended by  order  of  the  Landgraf  of  Hesse. 
An  extensive  correspondence  seems  to  have 
been  disclosed  between  Tasch  and  certain  Eng- 
lish Anabaptists,  one  of  whom  had  recently 
published  a  book  on  the  Incarnation  of  Christ. 
From  this  correspondence  it  appears  that  Tasch 
himself  was  intending  shortly  to  visit  England. 
The  Landgraf,  who  was  just  then  in  negotiation 
with  Henry  the  Eighth  with  a  view  to  the  latter 
assuming  the  Headship  of  a  Protestant  league 
of  German  Princes,  informed  the  English  King 
of  the  above  facts,  and  we  may  rest  assured  that 
the  English  Anabaptists  suffered  in  consequence. 

There   are   occasional,  but  not  very  frequent 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  337 

allusions  to  English  Anabaptism  and  Anabaptists 
in  Bishop  Latimer's  sermons.  Thus,  in  the  fourth 
sermon  preached  before  Edward  the  Sixth  on 
March  29th,  1549,  Latimer  says:  UI  should  have 
told  you  here  of  a  certain  sect  of  hereticks  that 
speak  against  this  order  and  doctrine.  They  would 
have  no  magistrates  nor  judges  on  the  earth. 
Here  I  have  to  tell  you  what  I  heard  of  late 
by  the  relation  of  a  credible  and  a  worshipful 
man  of  a  town  in  this  realm  of  England  that 
hath  above  five  hundred  hereticks  of  this  er- 
roneous opinion  in  it,  as  he  said."  The  orthodox 
Protestants  appear  to  have  professed,  sincerely 
or  otherwise,  to  have  held  the  theory  about 
this  time,  that  the  Anabaptist  missionaries  were 
emissaries  of  the  Pope,  sent  to  discredit  the 
Reform-doctrines  in  general.  Whether  Latimer 
took  this  view  or  not  is  uncertain,  but  an  early 
editor  of  his  sermons  appends  a  footnote  to 
the  above  passage,  in  which  he  says  that  per- 
sons were  employed  by  the  Pope  during  King 
Edward's  reign  to  preach  the  pernicious  doc- 
trines of  the  Anabaptists  for  the  purpose  of 
obstructing  the  proceedings  of  the  Reformers. 
(Cf.  Carte,  "  History  of  England,"  tome  III. 
pp.  252  sqq.) 

22 


338  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

During  Elisabeth's  reign  English  Anabaptism 
took  definite  shape  in  the  form  of  a  sect  or 
party  calling  themselves  the  Family  of  Love. 
Its  originator  was  one  Henry  Nicholas,  Henrick 
Nicklaes,  or  Heinrich  Nicolai,  according  to  the 
various  renderings  of  his  name  in  English, 
Dutch,  and  German  respectively.  For  literary 
purposes,  it  should  here  be  mentioned,  he  ex- 
clusively used  the  initials  "  H.  N."  Nicholas,  as 
we  shall  henceforth  term  him,  it  having  been 
the  name  by  which  he  was  always  known  in 
this  country,  was  a  native  of  Miinster,  the  great 
continental  seat  of  militant  Anabaptism,  and  was 
probably  born  in  the  early  part  of  1501.  He 
is  described  as  a  wonder-child,  who  disputed  on 
theological  topics  when  he  was  only  eight  years 
old,  and  on  account  of  the  posers  he  put  to  his 
unhappy  father,  the  latter  took  him  to  the 
Minorite  monks  of  Miinster  for  advice.  Nicholas 
married  at  twenty,  having  become  a  member  of 
the  company  of  mercers  of  his  native  town.  In 
spite  of  his  trade  avocations,  he  seems  to  have 
found  time  to  continue  his  favorite  theological 
hobby,  for  we  hear  of  him  having  been  im- 
prisoned for  heresy  in  Miinster,  although  soon 
afterwards  liberated.  How  his  business  fared  at 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  339 

this  time  we  do  not  know,  but  a  few  years 
later,  in  1530,  before,  that  is,  the  rise  of 
the  great  Anabaptist  movement  in  his  birth- 
place, he  migrated  to  Amsterdam,  in  which 
city  he  again  established  himself  in  business. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  here  he  definitely 
joined  the  Anabaptist  sect,  and  we  learn  that 
he  was  imprisoned  for  some  time  in  1535  on 
suspicion  of  complicity  with  the  Munster  King- 
dom of  God.  It  was  not,  however,  till  1540 
that  he  appears  to  have  felt  a  special  or  inde- 
pendent prophetic  call.  In  this  year,  he  started 
on  a  mission  as  the  third  Anabaptist  prophet, 
as  he  called  himself.  Whom  he  deemed  the 
first  and  second  is  not  quite  clear,  though 
probably  Melchior  Hoffmann  and  Jan  of  Leyden 
(or  possibly  Matthys)  were  meant. 

He  took  with  him  on  his  journey  three  UE1 
ders"  from  amongst  those  of  the  Brethren  who 

o 

had  joined  him.  One  of  these  Elders,  whose 
assumed  name  was  Tobias,  has  left  a  record  of 
events  connected  with  the  life  of  Nicholas,  in  a 
book  published  some  time  during  the  third 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  entitled 
u  Mirabilia  opera  Dei :  Certaine  wonderfulle 
Works  of  God  which  happened  to  H.  N.  even 


340  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

from  his  youth.  Published  by  Tobias,  a  Fellow 
Elder  with  H.  N.  in  the  Household  of  Love." 
In  this  book  Tobias  relates  at  length  H.  N.'s 
early  theological  heart-burnings,  and  his  visions 
and  dreams  portending  his  future  role  as  prophet. 
He  did  not  assume  such  role,  according  to  this 
first-hand  authority,  until  he  was  thirty-nine  years 
old,  namely,  as  above  said,  in  the  year  1540, 
when  he  received  the  customary  Anabaptist 
revelation  from  God  to  himself,  endowing  him 
with  prophetic  gifts  and  powers.  uThe  Lord," 
says  Tobias,  u  chose  him  to  be  a  minister  of 
His  Holy  Word,  and  prepared  or  ordained  to 
H.  N.  for  his  assistance  in  the  same  administra- 
tion, Daniel,  Elidad,  and  Tobias  (the  writer), 
which  continued  always  with  him."  Our  author 
goes  on  to  say  that,  u  driven  by  the  Holy  Spirit," 
H.  N.  now  endeavoured  to  set  down  all  the 
Lord  had  revealed  and  commanded  him.  He 
soon,  however,  received  a  revelation  that  he 
was  to  write  no  more  in  the  place  in  which  he 
then  was — namely,  Amsterdam — but  was  to 
travel  eastward  towards  a  certain  place  "and 
dwell  there  till  I  Myself,  by  the  hand  of  My 
Angel,  bring  thee  from  thence."  The  objective 
seems  to  have  been  Emden,  in  Westphalia, 


THE  ANABAPT1STMO  YEMEN  T  IN  EN  GLAND.  341 

where,  as  we  otherwise  learn,  Nicholas  resided 
some  time.  He  appears  at  this  time  to  have 
undergone  persecution,  since  Tobias  tells  us 
that  the  Lord  afflicted  him  heavily  through  his 
enemies.  u  The  Lord  suffered  him  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  wicked,  his  enemies  .  .  .  and 
suffered  him  to  taste  and  feel  the  condemnation 
of  all  ungodly  ones  in  the  hellish  fire."  In  his 
affliction  he  occupied  himself  in  composing 
psalms,  which  are  given  at  length  by  his  bio- 
grapher, but  amount  to  little  more  than  turgid 
paraphrases  of  the  biblical  psalms.  In  Chapter 
XXVI.  Tobias  relates  how  his  friend  and  spirit- 
ual father  was  released  from  his  misery,  how 
he  continued  to  set  forth  his  godly  testimony 
in  writing,  and  how  certain  uevil  ones"  and 
u  false  hearts "  defamed  him  notwithstanding 
that  he  was  u  no  man's  enemy  nor  contemned 
any  man  for  his  religion."  We  gather  that 
H.  N.'s  enemies  again  succeeded  in  getting  a 
mandate  launched  against  him  when  in  the 
fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  but  he  could  not  be 
arrested,  u  for  the  Lord  carried  him  by  the 
hands  of  His  Angels,  openly,  before  the  eyes  of 
his  persecutors,  away  from  that  land." 

In  his  sixty-fifth  year,  H.  N.  was  ordered  by 


342  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

God  to  arise  and  journey  towards  a  land  which 
is  not  mentioned,  but  which  was  possibly  Eng- 
land. He  was  to  separate  himself  from  his 
friends,  with  the  exception  of  certain  who  were 
indicated — to  wit,  the  Ancients  and  the  faithful 
ones.  "For  of  them  shall  travel  with  thee 
twenty-four,  and  they  shall  be  called  unto  Me 
Nazareans."  In  addition,  he  was  to  take  with  him 
four  of  the  chiefest  seraphim  in  the  Household 
of  Love.  The  seraphim,  it  should  be  premised, 
were  the  foremost  order  in  the  hierarchy  into 
which  Nicholas  had  organised  his  new  Church.  He 
was  to  take  with  him  copies  of  all  his  writings, 
to  the  end  that  he  might  revise  them  with  the 
help  of  his  Elders,  in  order  to  make  them  more 
plain  to  the  understanding.  Tobias,  our  author, 
was  of  the  party,  and  he  relates  that  they  tra- 
velled u  seven  times  seven  days,"  without  eating 
any  kind  of  animal  food  u  or  creature  that  had 
any  breath  of  life  in  itself  or  had  received  any," 
or  drinking  "  any  wine  or  strong  drink  for  to 
rejoice  our  hearts."  Much  space  is  given  to  the 
relation  of  their  religious  exercises  and  their 
growth  in  spiritual  life  during  their  wanderings, 
and  of  their  insight  into  the  meaning  of  true 
Christian  teaching.  Finally,  on  the  fiftieth  day 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  343 

of  the  journey  came  unto  them  ua  still,  soft, 
silent  voice,  wind,  or  spirit,"  and  they  were 
"  enlightened  in  Christ."  They  became,  Tobias 
says,  altogether  one  being  with  the  living  God- 
head of  Jesus  Christ,  which  appeared  to  them 
as  in  a  cloud.  They  were  informed  that  the 
land  they  were  now  in  was  the  holy  place  of 
God's  dwelling,  where  all  His  true  lovers  were 
to  be  brought.  H.  N.  and  his  twenty-four  Elders 
and  four  seraphim  were  to  dwell  there  with 
God  eternally.  God  would,  through  H.  N.,  set 
up  His  most  holy  priestly  office  of  Love,  and 
he  was  to  declare  the  doctrine  over  all  the 
world  through  its  ministry.  And  since  God  had 
united  Himself  with  H.  N.  and  the  Elders,  u  all 
what  ye  out  of  the  same  My  judgment  curse, 
separate,  or  condemn,  shall  be  accursed,  sepa- 
rated, and  into  hell  condemned,  and  all  what 
ye  bless  shall  be  blessed  in  the  Heavens."  His 
writings,  as  before  said,  were  to  be  carefully 
perused  with  the  Elders,  and  the  godly  testi- 
monies were  to  be  declared  in  the  plainest 
manner  and  so  transcribed. 

It  is  difficult  out  of  the  strange  mystic  rig- 
marole of  which  this  book  for  the  most  part 
consists,  to  make  out  anything  very  definite  as 


344  &fSE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

to  the  history  of  the  movement  and  its  founder, 
or  as  to  the  geographical  location  of  the  coun- 
try in  which  the  organisation  of  the  new  Church, 
the  so-called  Family  of  Love,  received  its  final 
shape.  It  may  have  been  one  of  the  provinces 
of  western  Germany,  or  it  may  have  been,  as 
already  suggested,  England,  the  country  of  its 
greatest  success. 

Another  book,  published  about  the  same  time 
as  that  of  Tobias,  is  called:  "The  Displaying 
of  an  horrible  secte  of  grosse  and  wicked  Here- 
tiques,  naming  themselves  the  Familie  of  Love, 
with  the  lives  of  their  Authors  and  what  doc- 
trine they  teach  in  corners.  Newly  set  forth 
by  I.  R.,  1578."  The  initials  on  the  title-page 
stand  for  one  John  Rogers,  and  the  book,  as 
may  be  gathered  from  the  title,  was  written 
from  a  hostile  stand-point  and  may  have  been 
intended  as  a  counterblast  to  Tobias's  work. 
The  author  in  the  preface  remarks  upon  the 
daily  increase  of  this  heresy,  how  in  many 
shires  there  are  meetings  and  conventicles  of 
this  Family  of  Love,  "  and  into  what  number 
they  have  grown,"  says  I.  R.,  u  my  hart  reweth 
to  speak  that  which  one  of  the  same  societie 
did  auouch  to  me  for  truth."  And  again, 


THE  ANABAPT1STMO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  345 

speaking  of  their  literature,  he  complains  that 
umany  bookes  are  abroade,  which  I  have  not 
seene,  and  many  I  have  seene,  which  I  could 
not  have  the  use  of  to  reade,"  for,  he  says, 
that  unless  one  will  be  "pliant  to  their  doctrine," 
it  is  difficult  to  get  hold  of  their  books.  He 

o 

also  complains  that  they  would  not  confer  or 
talk  of  any  points  of  their  doctrine  with  any 
save  such  as  were  inclined  to  be  of  the  same 
mind.  The  author  had  been  familiar  with  some 
of  the  sect  for  a  long  time  and  had  had  much 
personal  intercourse  with  them.  He  writes  in 
the  hope  that  his  book  may  do  them  good. 

As  regards  the  character  and  behaviour  of 
H.  N.,  he  has  the  testimony  of  u  diuers  ancient 
persons  and  of  good  credite  of  the  Dutch 
Church,  who  have  been  acquainted  with  the 
same  H.  N.  and  have  dwelt  together  in  one 
citie,  and  in  one  streete,  being  neere  neighbours 
and  familiar  friends,  who  have  declared  and 
testified  the  certeintie  of  his  behaviour  and 
demeanor."  Rogers  draws  attention  to  the  fact 
that  H.  N.  was  a  disciple  of  David  Georg  (Joris) 
and  reproaches  him  with  publishing  Georg's 
doctrines  under  his  own  name  as  the  outcome 
of  a  pretended  revelation  from  God.  The 


346  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

author's  preface  concludes  with  an  exhortation 
to  flee  those  who  say  that  they  have  had  a 
direct  revelation  from  Heaven,  such  being  con- 
trary to  the  teaching  of  Scripture. 

After  Rogers's  own  preface  follows  another, 
by  a  certain  Stephan  Bateman,  "  Professour  of 
Divinitie,5'  who  says  that  it  is  time  to  redress 
the  evil  of  these  heretics  "  or  else  will  assuredly 
followe  the  like  plague  on  us,  as  was  at  Munster 
in  Germaine,  by  David  Georg,  John  a  Leede, 
Knipper  Dolling  (sic.),  and  others,  the  seede 
whereof  is  H.  N.,  Henrie  Nicholas,  nowe  of 
Colone,  his  disciple  here  in  England,  Christopher 
Vittel,  Joyner,  and  many  more. .  .  ." 

The  book  itself  proper  begins  with  a  biogra- 
phy of  David  Georg,  how  he  was  born  in 
Holland  at  Delft,  how  he  there  taught  his  errors 
for  forty  years,  how  in  1544  he  fled  to  Basel 
with  his  family  and  kinsfolk,  calling  himself  John 
of  Bridges,  how  after  settling  there  he  and  his 
were  made  free  burghers  of  the  town,  how  he 
married  his  daughters  very  worshipfully,  and 
how  he  built  two  houses,  one  of  which  was 
burned  down  through  lightning,  whilst  the  loft 
of  the  other  collapsed.  These  calamities  are 
regarded  by  the  pious  Rogers  as  warnings  of 


THE  ANABAPTISTMO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  347 

God's  displeasure  at  unsound  doctrine.  He  states 
that  Georg  lived  eleven  years  in  Basel  "  and  it 
was  not  espied  what  doctrine  he  taught."  At 
length,  Georg's  son-in-law  beginning  to  suspect  the 
orthodoxy  of  his  wife's  father's  theological  views, 
the  latter  endeavoured,  unsuccessfully,  to  convert 
him.  He  wrote  divers  books,  says  Rogers, 
especially  the  "  Wonder-Book,"  in  which  he 
taught  his  damnable  errors.  He  declared,  it 
was  said,  that  he  would  not  die,  or  that  if  he 
did  he  would  rise  again  within  three  years. 
He  died,  nevertheless,  on  August  i6th,  1556. 
The  magistrates  at  Basel  did  not  get  wind  of 
his  doctrines  until  after  his  death.  When  they 
did,  they  ordered  a  house  search  amongst  his 
acquaintances,  and  such  as  were  suspect  of  his 
heresy  were  compelled  solemnly  to  recant.  The 
body  of  Georg  was  afterwards  dug  up  and 
burned,  together  with  his  books  and  papers, 
on  the  market-place,  a  painting  of  him  found 
in  his  house  being  included.  The  account  of 
Georg  given  by  Rogers  is  confirmed  in  its  main 
facts  from  other  sources. 

But  the  "pernicious  doctrine,"  although  it  may 
have  been  stamped  out  in  Basel  by  these  drastic 
measures,  continued  its  course  in  its  original 


348  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

home  in  Holland,  foremost  amongst  its  exponents 
being  Henry  Nicholas,  who  now  began  to  main- 
tain Georg's  ideas  under  his  own  name  in  his 
assumed  role  of  prophet.  He  has,  Rogers  con- 
tinues, u  written  many  books  in  the  Dutch  tongue 
in  a  rude  style,  which  many  of  his  followers  and 
scholars  have  translated  into  divers  languages : 
his  "  Evangelium  Regni "  is  in  Latin,  many  are 
also  in  a  Dutch  letter  in  English,  translated 

o 

(as  is  supposed)  by  Christopher  Vitell,  a  joyner, 
dwelling  sometime  in  Southwarke. .  .  ."  This 
Vitell,  already  alluded  to  by  Rogers  in  his 
preface,  seems  to  have  been  the  most  earnest 
and  energetic  of  Nicholas's  followers  in  this 
country.  He  is  much  mentioned  in  connection 
with  Anabaptist  and  kindred  doctrine  at  this 
time,  and  we  shall  return  to  him  again  later 
on.  Rogers  himself  attributes  to  Vitell  a  large 
measure  of  the  success  obtained  by  the  new 
heresy  in  England.  Vitell,  he  goes  on  to  say, 
by  his  wandering  about  had  "  infected  many 
people  with  his  poisoned  doctrine,  so  much  so 
that  it  is  difficult  to  root  it  out,  for  even  if  they 
recant  publicly,  yet  they  return  to  their  old 
opinions,  as  is  well  scene  by  many  I  could  name, 
for  it  is  a  maxima  in  the  Familie  to  denie  before 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  349 

men  all  their  doctrine,  so  that  they  may  keep 
the  same  secrete  in  their  hearts."  Many  English- 
men, he  continues,  have  been  to  Flanders  to 
confer  with  this  H.  N.,  whose  mild  nature, 
humility,  and  patience  they  praise. 

In  the  second  chapter  of  this  polemical  work 
the  author  gives  biographical  facts  concerning 
Nicholas,  "  testified  by  certeine  of  the  Dutch 
Church  yet  living,  who  knew  the  man  and  were 
acquainted  with  him."  Rogers  erroneously  states 
that  H.  N.  was  born  in  Amsterdam,  adding  that 
he  was  by  many  called  Henry  of  Amsterdam, 
which  was  the  case.  He  left  Amsterdam,  he 
says,  with  his  brother  John,  about  1533,  "when 
a  certain  sturre  was  in  the  towne  tending  to 
a  tumult."  The  two  brothers,  he  states,  had 
prepared  money  to  aid  the  Anabaptist  Brethren 
in  Mlinster.  Their  intentions  were,  however, 
discovered  by  the  authorities,  which  led  to  their 
arrest  and  imprisonment.  u  At  the  last,"  he 
says,  u  they  forsook  the  citie  and  came  to  Emden, 
a  citie  of  Westfriesland."  John  Nicholas,  the 
brother,  was  a  brewer,  whilst  Henry,  as  we  know, 
was  a  mercer.  Respecting  the  latter,  Rogers 
relates  that  he  was  of  reasonable  tall  stature. 
11  somewhat  grosse  in  bodie."  His  son,  also 


350  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

called  by  Rogers  John,  kept  his  shop,  but 
other  authorities  give  the  name  of  the  son  who 
attended  to  the  business  as  Franz.  uHenrie," 
our  author  states,  u  was  very  brave  in  his 
apparell,  he  would  go  in  his  crimson  satten 
doublet  everie  holiday."  He  devoted  his  time 
to  the  writing  of  books,  of  which,  besides  the 
uEvangelium  Regni,"  is  mentioned  uThe  Glasse 
of  Righteousness,"  under  which  name  he  published 
two  works,  the  smaller  of  which  was  the  better 
known. 

Rogers  goes  on  to  allege  that  Nicholas  kept 
three  women  in  his  house  "of  same  appareil." 
One  of  these  was  his  wife,  he  said,  one  his 
sister,  and  one  his  cousin.  The  alleged  cousin, 
falling  ill,  confessed  to  some  neighbours  who 
came  to  visit  her  that  H. N.  had  "abused  her 
bodie."  On  these  persons  denouncing  him  to 
the  magistrates,  he  had  to  flee  and  his  goods 
were  seized.  This  is  alleged  to  have  happened 
when  he  was  about  fifty-seven  years  of  age. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  the 
story  comes  from  a  hostile  source  and  may  not 
be  authentic.  He  remained  an  exile  from  Am- 
sterdam in  the  house  of  one  of  his  disciples 
for  a  year  or  thereabouts,  and  was  thought  to 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  351 

have  gone  with  a  companion  to  Naples  after 
this.  Many  think,  adds  Rogers,  that  he  is  dead, 
but  those  of  the  Family  of  Love  in  England 
affirm  that  he  is  still  alive.  "If  it  be  so,"  says 
Rogers,  "by  this  collection  (sic)  he  cannot  be 
lesse  that  78  years  olde." 

His  biography  finished,  our  champion  of  or- 
thodoxy goes  on  to  discuss  the  doctrines  ofH. 
N.  and  his  followers.  He,  first  of  all,  endeavours 
to  show  the  identity  of  their  tenets  with  those 
of  the  Miinster  Anabaptists,  calling  attention  to 
the  title  assumed  by  Nicholas  of  "  Restorator 
Omnium''  and  comparing  it  to  that  of  Roth- 
mann's  celebrated  brochure  "  The  Book  of  Re- 
storation," from  which  he  gives  extracts  "that 
the  reader  may  perceive  howe  in  many  things 
their  doctrine  in  Miinster  and  the  Familie  in 
England  do  agree."  Eight  articles  from  the 
same  book  are  then  quoted,  amongst  them  that 
the  writings  of  the  prophets  shall  now  be  ful- 
filled, that  Martin  Luther  and  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  are  false  prophets,  "but  of  both  Luther 
is  the  worst,"  that  the  time  of  u  Restauration " 
is  at  hand,  etc.  "  Their  teachers  in  Minister," 
Rogers  continues,  "were  all  or  the  most  part 
Hollanders,  and  David  Georg  did  there  teache 


352  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

his  blasphemous  doctrine  at  that  time."  Amongst 
other  tenets  gathered  out  of  the  books  of  H.  N. 
and  taught  in  this  country  by  the  Family  of 
Love,  the  following  are  given  by  Rogers: — 
that  H.  N.  could  no  more  err  than  Moses,  the 
prophets,  or  Christ,  that  the  Elders  of  the 
Family  of  Love  possess  divinity,  inasmuch  as 
God  has  in  them  again  become  man,  and  that 
the  books  of  H.  N.  are  of  equal  authority  with 
the  Bible. 

Concerning  H.N.'s  style,  Rogers  has  the  fol- 
lowing observations : — u  For  indeed  in  his  Bookes 
he  doeth  not  deale  so  plainly,  as  one  being 
ledde  by  the  spirit  of  God,  whereof  he  boas- 
theth :  but  verie  subtilely,  and  darkely. . . .  Many 
godly  and  learned  men,  to  whom  I  have  de- 
liuered  his  books .  . .  have  testified,  that  there 
is  no  matter  in  the  Author,  that  may  bee 
drawen  into  argument,  but  that  it  seemeth  to 
be  as  a  riddle,  or  darke  speeche."  And  again: 
u  As  his  tearmes  and  phrases  are  geyson  and 
unwonted,  soe  they  doe  dasell  the  simple,  with 
an  admiration  of  a  prudent  spirite  to  be  in  the 
Author,  whiche  of  meane  wittes  can  neither  be 
comprehended  nor  understood." 

Emphasising    the   fact  that  H.  N.  is  no  more 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  353 

than  a  disciple  of  David  Georg,  he  quotes  pas- 
sages from  Georg's  writings  to  the  effect  that 
the  doctrine  taught  by  Moses,  the  prophets,  and 
Christ,  is  not  enough  for  salvation,  but  only  to 
keep  people  in  order  till  the  coming  of  himself, 
David  Georg,  who  is  the  true  Messiah  born  ol 
the  Holy  Ghost.  According  to  Rogers,  David 
Georg  u  was  the  hatcher  of  this  heresie,  and 
layde  the  egge,  but  H.  N.  brought  forth  the 
chicken."  Rogers  hears  that  there  are  at  least 
a  thousand  followers  of  H.  N.  in  England.  Pas- 
sages are  also  quoted  tending  to  show  that  H. 
IsT.,  probably  at  a  later  period  of  his  life,  favour- 
ed sundry  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  He  had  said  that  his  followers  might 
live  under  the  obedience  of  any  magistrate 
however  ungodly,  be  he  even  the  Turk  or  the 
Pope.  He  alleges  that  H.  N.  had  been  on  terms 
of  intimacy  with  a  certain  Cardinal  Granella. 
By  these  facts  he  endeavours  to  give  colour, 
as  regards  H.  N.  and  his  teaching,  to  the  old 
calumny  that  the  Pope  was  at  the  back  of  the 
Anabaptist  movement.  He  exhorts  all  the  fol- 
lowers of  H.  N.  to  forsake  the  "  drowsy  dreams 
of  a  doting  Dutchman,"  who,  he  complains, 
would  make  uthe  true  sense  of  the  Holy  Ghost" 

23 


354  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  none  effect  by  turning  the  biblical  narrative 
into  an  allegory  of  his  own  tenets. 

The  latter  portion  of  Rogers'  book  contains 
"an  admonition  to  Christopher  Vitell,"  in  which 
the  worthy  Vitell  is  accused  of  having  taught 
the  doctrine  of  the  Arians  during  Mary's  reign, 
and  of  having  had  to  recant  the  same  at 
St  Paul's  Cross  in  the  first  year  of  Elizabeth's, 
"as  by  the  .register  of  ye  Bishop  of  London 
doth  manifestly  appeare."  Alluding  to  this  and 
apostrophising  Vitell,  the  author  says :  u  and  now 
Sathan  hath  possessed  your  mind  with  infinite 
more  blasphemies  of  H.  N.,"  adding  u  some  of  our 
own  family  can  testify  that  you  are  an  hypocrite 
and  a  dissembler  and  live  of  the  spoile  of  the 
poor."  At  the  close  of  the  book,  a  confession 
is  given,  made  by  two  of  the  Family  of  Love, 
or  Familists,  as  the  followers  of  H.  N.  were 
commonly  called,  "before  a  worthy  and  wor- 
shipful Justice  of  the  Peace  on  the  28th  of  Maie, 
1561,  touching  the  errors  taught  amongst  them 
at  their  assemblies."  The  confession  states  that 
they,  the  Familists,  "  be  generally  all  unlearned," 
that  only  some  of  them  can  read  English  and 
that  not  very  well,  but  of  these  the  Elders  and 
Deacons  are  chosen,  that  the  congregations 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  355 

meet  at  one  of  the  disciples'  houses,  usually  to 
the  number  of  about  thirty  persons,  the  Bishop 
or  Deacon  reading  and  expounding  the  Scrip- 
ture to  them.  When  any  new  member  is  to  be 
received  into  the  congregation,  all  the  Brethren 
assemble,  and  the  Bishop  or  Elder  declares  to 
the  new  Brother  that  if  he  will  be  content  that 
all  his  goods  shall  be  in  common  amongst  the 
rest  of  his  Brethren  he  shall  be  received.  He 
is  then  formally  admitted,  all  the  men  and  women 
of  the  congregation  kissing  him  in  turn.  At 
their  meetings,  it  is  stated  by  the  two  depo- 
nents, they  all  have  meat,  drink,  and  lodging, 
at  the  cost  and  charge  of  the  owner  of  the 
house,  whom  they  call  a  Raab.  It  is  added 
that  they  remain  as  long  as  he  has  good  vic- 
tuals for  them,  whereby  sometimes  they  lose 
their  Raab,  who  thinks  himself  overcharged 
in  the  matter  of  hospitality.  The  meetings  are 
always  held  at  night,  each  person  knocking  at 
the  door  and  announcing  himself  or  herself 
with  the  words,  uHere  is  a  Brother  or  Sister 
in  Christ."  The  Elder  is  not  allowed  to  speak 
when  the  Bishop  is  present,  nor  the  Deacon 
before  either  of  his  superiors. 

At  the  beginning  of  Mary's  reign,  they  refus- 


356  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

ed  to  go  to  church,  but  shortly  afterwards 
they  seem  to  have  agreed  amongst  themselves 
to  do  outwardly  all  things  that  were  required 
of  them,  though  inwardly  holding  steadfastly 
to  their  faith.  They  are  forbidden  to  say  u  God 
speede,"  u  God  morrow,"  or  u  God  even,"  but 
are  to  address  one  another  with  the  salutation 
"  speede,"  "  morrowe,"  "  even."  They  may  not 
say  "God  save"  anything,  for  they  affirm  that 
all  things  are  ruled  by  nature  and  not  directly 
by  God.  At  one  time  they  prohibited  the  car- 
rying of  weapons,  but  as  they  became  noted 
and  marked  they  now  allow  the  bearing  of 
"staves."  They  are  not  bound  to  deal  truly 
with  any  man  in  word  or  deed  that  is  not  of 
their  sect.  When  their  wives  are  to  be  deliv- 
ered of  child,  they  must  use  the  help  of  none 
other  but  those  of  their  sect.  If  any  of  them 
die,  the  husband  or  wife  surviving  must  marry 
again  with  one  of  the  sect,  or  else  the  offence 
is  great.  The  marriage  is  made  by  the 
Brethren,  who  bring  them  together,  some- 
times even  when  the  persons  designated  live 
a  hundred  miles  asunder,  as,  for  instance, 
Thomas  Chandler,  who  lived  in  Surrey,  has  his 
wife  fetched  out  of  Ely  by  two  of  the  congre- 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  357 

gation,  the  man  and  the  woman  being  utter 
strangers.  They  can  divorce  themselves  before 
certain  of  the  congregation,  as  indeed  the  same 
Chandler  and  his  wife  did,  after  they  had  been 
married  a  year.  According  to  the  deposition, 
the  Familists  deny  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity 
and  maintain  that  no  man  should  be  baptised 
before  the  age  of  thirty.  They  hold,  our  de- 
ponents say,  that  heaven  and  hell  are  present 
in  the  world  amongst  us  and  that  there  are 

o 

none  other.  To  bury  the  dead  is  objected  to 
by  them.  They  repeat  ulet  the  dead  bury  their 
dead."  The  two  witnesses  do  not  explain  this 
objection.  They  reject  the  Sabbath-Day,  holding 
all  days  to  be  alike.  They  believe  that  there 
was  a  world  before  Adam's  time  as  there  is 
now.  They  think  that  no  man  should  be  put 
to  death  for  his  opinion,  and  they  strongly 
condemn  Cranmer  and  Ridley  for  burning  Joan 
of  Kent.  All  alms  are  given  by  them  to  the 
Elders  and  Bishops,  who  have  the  distributing 
of  them  at  their  will,  but  to  whom  they  are 
distributed  no-one  of  the  congregation  knows. 
The  usual  statement  is  added  in  this  connection 
as  to  the  Bishops,  Elders,  and  Deacons  increas- 
ing in  riches  and  becoming  wealthy,  whilst 


358  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

their  disciples  waxed  poor  and  fell  into  beggary 
— a  statement  that  may  be  either  true  or  a 
calumny,  so  far  as  our  means  of  judging  at  present 
are  concerned.  It  may  even  in  this  case  have 
been  added  by  Rogers  himself,  the  canons  of 
literary  morality  at  this  time  not  being  strict. 

We  have  given  this  evidence  at  length  and 
as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  alleged  ipsissima  verba 
of  the  witnesses,  as  it  is  about  the  only  succinct 
statement  in  existence  of  the  leading  tenets  of 
the  sect  of  the  Familists.  This,  as  will  be  noticed, 
contains  hardly  a  doctrine  that  cannot  be  par- 
alleled in  one  or  other  of  the  earlier  sects  into 
which  the  Anabaptist  movement  was  divided, 
and  which  are  indicated  in  Bullinger's  enumera- 
tion. We  should  not,  however,  omit  to  mention 
that  both  Nicholas  himself  and  his  followers,  the 
former  towards  the  close  of  his  life  and  the  latter 
at  a  subsequent  period,  were  prepared  to  depre- 
cate or  even  to  repudiate  the  denomination  of 
Anabaptist.  Thus  the  English  Familists  are 
found  presenting  a  petition  to  King  James  I.  in 
the  year  1604,  in  which  they  u  utterly  disclaim 
and  detest  all  the  absurd  and  self-conceited 
opinions  and  disobedient  and  erroneous  sorts  of 
the  Anabaptists,  Brown,  Penry,  Puritans,  and 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  359 

all  the  other  proud-minded  sects  and  heresies." 
This  emphatic  declaration  did  not,  however, 
prevent  them  from  remaining  under  the  ban  of 
the  law  until  they  were  lost  sight  of  amongst 
the  numerous  sects  and  parties  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

As  to  the  writings  of  Nicholas  himself,  there 
remains  little  to  say.  The  Evangelium  Regni, 
regarded  by  many  as  his  chief  work,  is  to  the 
modern  reader  nothing  but  a  turgid  mass  of 
theological  maunderings,  which  drones  on  page 
after  page  without  apparently  coming  to  any 
intelligible  point,  and  out  of  which  it  is  difficult 
to  make  any  coherent  doctrine.  In  spite  ot 
everything,  the  sect  seems  to  have  made  con- 
tinuous progress  towards  the  end  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  and  the  action  of  the  Privy  Council  in 
1579  in  deciding  to  hinder  the  further  advance 
of  this  " lovely  fraternity"  (Cf.  Documentary 
Annals,  I.  392-396)  does  not  seem  to  have  resulted 
in  anything  important. 

We  have  seen  that  the  most  energetic  and 
probably  the  ablest  apostle  of  H.  N.'s  teaching 
in  England  was  Christopher  Vitell,  the  Southwark 
joiner,  who  translated  many  of  H.  N.'s  writings 
from  Dutch  into  English.  The  chief  scene  of  his 


360  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

activity  appears  to  have  been  the  eastern  counties, 
especially  Essex  and  Cambridgeshire.  (Cf.  Strype's 
Annals,  II.  i.  487,  ii.  285.)  Vitell,  it  is  reported,  had 
worked  in  Holland,  where  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Nicholas  and  his  followers,  and  whence, 
it  is  said,  he  brought  the  doctrine  into  England  in 
the  reign  of  Mary,  when  he  came  out  of  Delft 
to  Colchester  and  joined  himself  to  the  profes- 
sors of  the  Gospel  there.  He  taught  that  the 
godly  have  in  themselves  free-will  to  do  good, 
and  he  u  could  not  away  with  predestination." 
Strype  (ii.  596,  597)  quotes  the  testimony  of 
one  Henry  Crinel  concerning  Vitell  and  his  teach- 
ing. This  Crinel  came  to  Colchester  in  1555, 
where  he  met  the  Anabaptist  joiner,  who,  says 
he,  u  as  far  as  I  could  at  that  time  learn,  held 
many  strange  opinions  and  also  taught  divers 
points  of  doctrine  scarce  found  and  such  as 
seemed  to  be  before  unheard  of."  Vitell  had, 
Crinel  says,  left  his  trade  of  joiner  to  become 
"a  great  and  learned  school-master  of  the  doc- 
trine of  a  man  who  lived,  as  he  said,  beyond 

the  seas This  man  he  praised  very  much 

and  reported  many  wonderful  things  of  his  an- 
gelic behaviour,  who  afterwards  I  understood 
to  be  one  Henry  Nicholas,  a  mercer  of  Delft, 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  361 

in  Holland."  Vitell,  he  says,  denounced  infant 
baptism  and  condemned  the  Litany  as  set  forth 
in  Edward  VI. 's  reign.  He  denied  the  divinity 
of  Christ  and  held  that  the  godly  cannot  sin 
and  hence  had  no  need  of  the  prayer,  "Have 
mercy  upon  us  miserable  sinners!"  Crinel  ad- 
mits that  he  was  impressed  with  Vitell's  "  bab- 
bling," as  he  terms  it,  so  much  so  that  he 
thought  of  going  to  Oxford  to  consult  Ridley 
and  Latimer  on  the  matter,  had  he  not  met 
with  some  men  who  satisfied  his  conscience  in 
the  mean  season.  Vitell  wandered  about  the 
country  and  so  came  also  to  Willingham  "where," 
says  Crinel,  "I  dwell;  and  sent  me  to  come 
and  speak  with  him  at  an  ale-house.  But  I  sent 
him  word,  I  would  not  come  at  him,  nor  have 
to  do  with  him.  This  is  very  true :  and  so  I 
testify  with  mine  own  hand :  By  me,  Henry 
Crinel,  of  Willingham."  It  is  clear  from  the 
above  that  the  Arianism  attributed  to  Vitell  in 
the  reign  of  Mary,  which  Roger  seems  to  dis- 
tinguish from  his  subsequent  Familism,  was 
really  part  of  one  and  the  same  teaching.  Strype 
also  adds  a  similar  statement  to  that  of  Rogers, 
as  to  Vitell's  having  openly  recanted  and  been 
received  again  into  the  Church ;  but  he  also 


362  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

admits  that  uthe  Family,"  meaning  the  Family 
of  Love,  denied  this.  Vitell  seems  to  have  had 
as  co-adjutors  in  his  propaganda  two  men  named 
John  Kemp  and  Henry  Hart,  who  were  called 
"  free-will  men  "  and  who  also  had  been  infor- 
med against  for  heresy  in  Mary's  reign. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
and  in  the  first  part  of  the  seventeenth,  various 
tractates  and  polemical  essays,  other  than  those 
mentioned,  appeared,  both  attacking  and  defend- 
ing the  doctrines  of  H.  N.,  though  more  usually 
the  former.  Of  these  may  be  adduced  one  en- 
titled "  An  Apology,"  purporting  to  be  written 
by  uOne  of  the  Queen's  Menial  Servants"  and 
dedicated  to  the  Parliament  then  sitting.  It  con- 
sists in  an  endeavour  to  whitewash  the  Fami- 
lists  of  the  charge  of  heresy,  insisting  that  they 
do  not  reject  the  Apostles'  creed  and  the  dogma 
of  the  Trinity,  and  protesting  that  they  use  no 
other  ceremonies,  laws,  sacraments,  etc.,  than 
such  as  the  English  Church  admits,  and  that 
they  obey  the  Queen  and  the  magistrates,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal.  It  indignantly  repudiates 
that  they  were  libertines,  sleeping  with  one 
another's  wives,  that  they  desired,  as  was  al- 
leged, all  men's  goods  to  be  in  common,  or  that 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  363 

they  were  hostile  to  the  State — that  is,  to  the 
temporal  powers  appointed  by  God.  This  tract, 
though  a  mere  piece  of  special  pleading  not  to 
be  regarded  as  trustworthy  in  its  representation 
of  the  views  of  the  sect,  seems  to  have  had 
some  vogue,  as  it  was  reprinted  under  the 
Commonwealth  in  1656.  It  may  be  taken  as 
belonging  to  a  type  of  apologetic  literature  in 
which  the  apologist  sets  himself  the  task  of 
showing  that  an  unpopular  system  or  doctrine 
means  simply  nothing  at  all  but  what  everybody 
else  amongst  his  contemporaries  professes  to 
hold.  We  have  in  the  present  day,  mutatis 
mutandis,  a  corresponding  kind  of  apologist  for 
Socialism,  who  is  ever  intent  on  showing  that 
Socialist  principles  involve  little  or  no  change, 
other  than  in  points  of  detail,  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  existing  order  of  Society. 

On  the  hostile  side  of  the  controversy  may 
be  mentioned  a  brochure  entitled  "  A  Confu- 
tation of  certain  Articles  delivered  unto  the 
Family  of  Love,  with  the  Exposition  of  Theo- 
philus,  a  supposed  Elder  of  the  same  Family, 
upon  the  same  Articles."  This  book,  dated  1579, 
is  dedicated  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  because,  it 
explains,  such  kind  of  heretics  are  to  be  found 


364  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

increasingly  in  his  diocese.  The  writer,  a  certain 
William  Wilkinson,  M.A.,  notes  down  fourteen 
articles  of  heresies  and  errors  of  H.  N.,  which 
he  purports  to  confute.  These,  he  says,  he 
had  shown  to  certain  of  the  Family  of  Love 
before  publication,  and  had  received  answers 
from  Theophilus,  one  of  their  Elders,  stating 
that  uout  of  his  malicious  mind"  the  author 
had  perverted  the  sense  of  the  articles  and 
framed  sundry  of  them  into  errors.  Wilkinson, 
in  his  turn,  replies  to  Theophilus  paragraph  by 
paragraph,  concluding  his  book  with  an  appendix, 
u  Notes  to  Know  an  Heretic,"  in  which  he  quotes 
largely  from  Bullinger,  especially  from  his  enume- 
ration of  the  Anabaptist  sects.  In  the  same 
year  appeared  another  book,  attacking  the 
teachings  of  H.  N.  and  dedicated  to  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  in  which  the  author,  J.  Knewstubs, 
in  his  dedicatory  preface  exhorts  the  Earl  to 
the  u  redress  of  a  dangerous  enormity  which  of 
late  hath  broken  out  in  this  land,"  to  wit,  the 
u atheism"  brought  by  H.  N.  and  his  household, 
"who  would  be  called  the  Family  of  Love." 
The  book  is  called  "  A  Confutation  of  certain 
Monstrous  Heresies  taught  by  H.  N."  Knew- 
stubs hopes  that  what  he  says  will  sufficiently 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  365 

persuade  his  honour  •'  to  enter  into  some  speedy 
care  and  consideration  to  suppress  so  great  and 
grievous  a  danger." 

We  hear  of  other  sects,  such  as  the  Family 
of  the  Mount,  the  Essentialists,  and  the  Liber- 
tines, which  seem  to  have  been  off-shoots  of 
the  Family  of  Love,  holding  similar  doctrines 
and  practising  a  similar  mode  of  life.  Strype 
(Annals,  II.  379,  380)  says  of  the  Family  of  the 
Mount  that  they  lived  in  communism  and  in 
mutual  edification,  that  they  denied  the  utility 
of  prayer,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  also 
heaven  and  hell  in  the  conventional  sense, 
alleging  that  heaven  is  when  men  laugh,  and 
hell  when  they  are  in  pain  or  sorrow.  He 
intimates  that  they  held  a  rationalist  explanation 
of  Scripture  and  that  they  averred  that  all 
things  came  by  nature.  The  Essentialists,  he 
says,  took  their  opinions  from  a  Mistress  Dunbar, 
a  Scotchwoman.  They  believed  that  there  was 
no  such  thing  as  sin  at  all,  for  God  did  every- 
thing in  love.  The  Libertines,  he  says,  held, 
like  the  earlier  Anabaptists,  that  no  doctors  nor 
learned  men  could  preach  the  word  truly,  basing 
this  opinion  on  the  saying  of  Christ  that  the 
Gospel  was  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent 


366  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

and  revealed  to  babes  and  sucklings.  Like 
the  earlier  Anabaptists,  too,  they  asserted  that 
the  Bible  in  itself  was  but  ink  and  paper,  that 
it  was  of  secondary  significance  only,  but  that 
the  true  word  of  God  was  the  spirit  and  life 
of  the  individual  believer.  This  is,  of  course, 
simply  a  recrudescence  of  the  old  Anabaptist 
doctrine  of  the  "  inner  light."  u  These  and  the 
like,"  remarks  Strype,  uwere  the  spawn  and 
improvements  of  this  Family  of  Love."  All  this 
time  H.  N.'s  writings  were  circulating  in  Eng- 
lish, probably  in  Vitell's  translation,  as  we  know 
that  certain  of  them  were  his  work.  They  in- 
cluded the  "Evangelium  Regni,"  the  "  Glass  of 
Righteousness,"  and  also  his  Epistles,  which  were 
published  in  English,  presumably  by  Vitell,  in 
1577,  under  the  title  of  uThe  Choice  Letters 
of  H.  N.,  which  he  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Love 
hath  set  forth,"  etc. 

The  most  flourishing  period  of  the  sect  is  not 
quite  easy  to  determine  from  the  evidence,  but 
between  1570  and  1580  it  undoubtedly  created 
considerable  stir  in  the  country,  more  especially 
in  the  eastern  counties,  so  much  so  that  Eliza- 
beth's lords  of  Council  sent  urgent  letters  to  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  pressing  him  to  take  forth- 


THE  ANABAPT1STMO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  367 

with  most  stringent  measures  for  its  suppression. 
The  Bishop,  in  his  reply,  promised  to  deal 
severely  with  the  sectaries  during  his  next  visit- 
ation. On  that  occasion,  he  found  that  numbers 
of  his  clergy  were  infected  with  the  new  heresy 
(Strype,  ii.  584). 

More  than  two  generations  later,  notwith- 
standing persuasion  and  persecution,  the  Fami- 
lists  seem  to  have  been  still  to  the  fore.  Strype 
refers  to  one  Randal  as  "  a  Preacher  to  these 
Sectaries,  in  an  House  within  the  Spittle- Yard 
without  Bishopsgate,  London,  in  the  year  1645, 
teaching  the  very  doctrine,  and  many  people 
flocking  after  him."  In  consequence  of  the 
success  of  the  propagandism  in  the  above-men- 
tioned year,  a  polemical  brochure  was  published 
entitled  "  A  Brief  Discovery  of  the  Blasphemous 
Doctrine  of  Familism,"  in  which  the  usual  charges 
were  made  against  the  sect. 

During  the  Commonwealth  and  subsequently, 
the  followers  of  Nicholas  seem  to  have  fallen 
very  much  into  the  background  amongst  the 
various  sects,  puritanical  and  otherwise,  which 
at  that  time  had  a  popularity,  and  they  never 
again  assumed  their  former  importance.  But 
that  the  sect  continued  to  exist  until  almost,  if 


368  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

not  quite,  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  Strype,  writing  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  says 
that  he  remembers  u  a  gentleman,  a  great  ad- 
mirer of  that  sect,  within  less  than  twenty  years 
ago,  who  told  me  that  there  then  was  but  one 
of  the  Family  of  Love  alive  and  he  an  old 
man."  On  the  continent,  the  sect  would  seem  to 
have  disappeared  sooner. 

The  connection  between  the  Family  of  Love 
and  Anabaptists  generally  and  the  various  puri- 
tanical and  dissenting  sects  of  the  Commonwealth 
and  the  time  of  Charles  II.  is  rather  obscure, 
though  traces  of  such  a  connection  are  visible 
in  several  instances.  For  example,  in  certain 
respects  we  find  indications  of  the  Anabaptist 
tradition  in  such  bodies  as  the  "  Ranters,"  and, 
what  is  more  important,  in  the  Quakers  and  in 
John  Bunyan,  as  well,  of  course,  as  in  the  earlier 
phases  of  the  modern  orthodox  Baptist  denom- 
ination. Respecting  the  u  Ranters,"  the  fullest 
account  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  is  from  a 
hostile  pamphlet  in  the  Bodleian  Library  entitled 
"The  Ranters'  Ranting,  or  a  True  Relation  ot 
a  Sort  of  People  called  Ranters,  with  some  of 
their  abominable  and  wicked  Carriages  and 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  369 

Behaviour  at  their  Public  Meetings."  The 
meetings,  this  pamphlet  says,  were  held  first  of 
all  in  Shoemaker's  alley,  in  London,  beginning 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and  sometimes 
continuing  till  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning, 
which  time,  says  the  writer,  "was  spent  in 
drunkenness,  uncleanness,  blasphemous  words, 
filthy  songs,  and  mixed  dancing  of  men  and 
women  stark  naked  "  A  party  of  them  were 
apprehended  at  one  of  their  meetings  held  in 
Whitechapel. 

The  greeting  of  the  Brethren  consisted  in  a 
kiss,  followed  by  the  words,  "Welcome,  fellow- 
creature  ! " — the  latter  being  the  designation 
generally  used  by  the  members  of  the  sect  to 
each  other.  At  a  meeting  held  by  them  at  a 
tavern  in  London,  one  of  them  is  alleged  to 
have  let  drop  a  paper,  which  was  subsequently 
found,  containing  the  regulation  summons  to  the 
female  members  to  assemble.  This,  which  may 
have  been  a  forgery,  was  as  follows : — u  Dear 
Sister  and  Fellow  Creature,  whose  sweetness  we 
reverence  and  whose  person  we  adore,  whose 
witty  conceits  we  admire  and  whose  subtlety 
we  wonder  at,  we  do  by  this  our  handwriting 
enjoin  that  you  personally  appear  at  the  place 

24 


370  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

where  we  last  had  some  infernal  conference  half 
an  hour  past  four  in  the  afternoon  of  this  present 
day.  Hereof  you  are  commanded  not  to  fail, 
for  that  Beelzebub,  Lucifer,  Pluto,  and  above 
twenty  more  of  the  Princes  and  Officers  will 
attend,  etc.  Signed  Diabolo.  Dated  at  our  in- 
fernall  Pallace  without  Bishopsgate,  tenth  of 
October,  1650."  The  writer  of  this  curious 
pamphlet,  which  describes  the  meetings  of  the 
sect  as  simple  orgies,  states  that  one  of  the 
members  "  discoursing  at  the  Spittle  said  that 
he  knew  no  difference  between  God  and  the 
Divell ;  and  being  asked  what  he  thought  of  the 
Divell,  he  answered  that  it  was  an  old  woman 
stuffed  with  parsley."  Our  author  continues,  "I 
am  credibly  informed  that  some  of  them  deny 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  so  holding  an 
opinion  that  there  is  neither  heaven  nor  hell, 
etc."  It  is  difficult  to  know  whether  we  are  to 
regard  this  strange  sect  as  having  any  real 
organisation  and  following,  or  as  denoting  a 
mere  sporadic  eccentricity  on  the  part  of  a  few 
individuals  without  any  continuance  or  indepen- 
dent importance.  In  any  case,  even  if  it  were 
only  a  passing  craze,  the  salutation  and  the 
nudity  of  the  gatherings  recall  some  of  the 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  37 1 

characteristics  met  with  in  certain  phases  of 
German  Anabaptism,  such,  for  instance,  as  we 
have  seen  manifested,  according  to  Kessler,  in 
the  St.  Gallen  movement,  as  also  in  the  case 
narrated  in  a  previous  chapter  as  having  happen- 
ed at  the  house  of  the  cloth-merchant  in  Am- 
sterdam. 

The  resemblance  between  many  of  the  tenets 
of  the  Quakers  and  those  of  the  Anabaptists 
is  sufficiently  clear.  We  see,  for  example,  the 
doctrine  of  non-resistance,  the  contempt  for  the 
"  steeple-houses  " — the  Munsterites  had  called 
churches  u  stone-heaps " — the  condemnation  of 
all  outward  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  the  inspiration  of  the  inner  light  as  the 
supreme  court  of  appeal.  These  are  all  tho- 
roughly Anabaptist  in  origin.  The  simple  cha- 
racter of  their  meetings,  moreover,  notwith- 
standing some  possible  points  of  difference, 
bears  an  unmistakable  family  likeness  to  those 
of  the  Anabaptist  sects.  Anabaptism,  especially 
in  its  later  form  in  the  teaching  of  Henry  Ni- 
cholas and  its  off-shoots,  was  undoubtedly  in 
the  air  at  the  time  when  George  Fox  was  born 
and  grew  up.  That  he  had  come  across  writings 
of  an  Anabaptist  tendency,  of  the  Familists  and 


372  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

others,  is  exceedingly  probable.  The  commu- 
nistic side  of  the  earlier  Anabaptism  appears 
in  a  shadowy  form  in  Quakerism  in  the  shape 
of  the  special  stress  laid  upon  the  duty  of  alms- 
giving to  the  poorer  members  of  the  denomi- 
nation. It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the  parts  of 
England  where  the  followers  of  Nicholas  and 
similar  sects  chiefly  flourished,  became  the  most 
fruitful  seed-ground  of  Quaker  principles.  By 
their  contemporaries  the  Friends  were  uniformly 
regarded  as  a  sect  of  Anabaptists,  as  may 
easily  be  seen  from  the  theological  literature 
of  the  period. 

The  extension  of  their  objection  to  sacraments 
to  that  of  repudiating  baptism  itself  does  not 
entirely  differentiate  them  from  the  Anabap- 
tists, for  we  find  that  Bullinger  mentions  some 
amongst  the  Anabaptists  of  his  own  time  who 
regarded  the  ceremony  as  superfluous,  whilst 
certainly  the  bulk  of  them  would  have  held  it 
not  essential  to  the  soul's  salvation.  We  many 
recall  in  this  connection  how  Melchior  Hoffmann 
and  his  disciples  agreed  from  motives  of  expe- 
diency to  the  suspension  of  baptism  for  two 
whole  years.  This  they  would  hardly  have  done 
had  they  deemed  it  an  essential  rite.  Probably, 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  YEMEN  TIN  EN  GLAND.  373 

by  most  Anabaptists  it  was  never  viewed  in 
any  other  light  than  as  a  useful  sign  to  diffe- 
rentiate the  Brethren  within  the  spiritual  fold 
from  the  heathen  and  godless  without  The 
acceptance  of  infant  baptism  would  have  put 
the  Quakers  out  of  court  with  Anabaptists  of 
every  order,  but  the  mere  fact  of  going  a  step 
farther  and  rejecting  adult  baptism  as  well, 
would  not.  Even  in  their  eccentricities  and 
aberrations  a  correspondence  may  be  traced 
between  the  English  Quakers  of  the  seventeenth 
century  and  the  German  Anabaptists  of  the 
sixteenth.  Not  alone  is  the  ascetic  puritanism  of 
the  one  prominent  in  the  other,  but  the  scorn 
of  all  that  savoured  of  the  things  of  the  world, 
the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life,  is 
also  reproduced  in  the  plain,  grey  garb  of  the 
Quaker  and  his  special  modes  of  salutation,  in- 
cluding his  pedantic  worship  of  the  letter  of 
truthfulness,  as  illustrated  in  his  refusal  to  adopt 
the  current  forms  of  polite  address.  There  is 
more  in  these  things  than  what  is  common  to 
the  whole  of  the  puritanical  religious  conscious- 
ness of  that  period.  The  doctrine  that  the  inner 
light  in  the  soul  of  the  believer  was  the  highest 
standard  of  authority  in  spiritual  matters,  taking 


374  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

precedence  even  of  the  letter  of  Scripture  itself 
—which  the  average  puritan  of  the  time  regarded 
as  final — is  of  itself  a  sufficient  line  of  demar- 
cation. 

Even  in  the  manifestations  of  religious  mania 
that  afflicted  certain  of  their  members  at  times, 
the  earlier  Anabaptism  and  the  later  Quakerism 
have  most  distinct  points  of  correspondence. 
The  very  evidence  of  eccentric  behaviour  from 
which  the  sect  acquired  its  name  serves  to  prove 
this.  No-one  who  has  read  the  accounts  of  the 
peculiar  orgies  recorded  of  the  sectaries  in  Ger- 
many and  the  Netherlands  in  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century  will  fail  to  recognise  the 
almost  identical  symptoms  in  those  related 
of  the  Quakers  during  the  second  half  of  the 
seventeenth.  Some  remarkable  stories  of  this 
kind  of  thing  are  told  in  a  work  entitled  uThe 
Fanatick  History,  or  an  exact  Relation  and 
Account  of  the  Old  Anabaptists  and  New 
Quakers,"  which  was  published  anonymously  by 
one  Richard  Blome  in  1660.  It  deals  with  the 
latest  English  developments  of  religious  sectari- 
anism, besides  including  a  history  of  the  Ana- 
baptists of  Miinster.  The  work,  although  hostile, 
contains  many  narratives  of  a  detailed  and 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT IN  ENGLAND.  375 

circumstantial  character  that  can  hardly  be  other- 
wise than  accepted  as  true  in  their  essential 
features.  Thus  we  read  how  John  Gilpin  howled 
upon  his  bed  and  cried  in  a  hideous  manner, 
how  he  had  visions  and  felt  the  divine  spirit 
enter  his  body,  how  he  was  promised  to  be 
endowed  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  how  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Friends  he  was  thrown  upon 
the  ground  in  the  midst  of  the  company,  where 
he  lay  all  night,  how  he  was  turned  from  back 
to  belly,  making  crosses  continually  with  his 
legs — a  distinct  Anabaptist  touch — how  he  was 
finally  led  down  a  street  to  enter  u  the  fidler's 
house,"  where  his  hand  was  carried  to  a  "  bass- 
viol,"  upon  which  he  played,  afterwards  being 
impelled  to  fall  a-dancing,  and  so  forth.  Many 
more  things  of  this  nature  indicative  of  acute 
religious  mania  are  given  of  this  Gilpin,  and 
the  narrative  is  alleged  to  be  vouched  for  by 
Gilpin  himself  and  by  others  of  known  fidelity 
in  or  near  Kendal,  in  Westmoreland,  where  the 
events  are  said  to  have  happened, 

Again,  of  John  Tolderry,  it  is  related  that  he 
was  exalted  by  earnest  prayer  at  Quaker  meet- 
ings and  half  starved  himself,  because  he  resolved 
to  eat  nothing  that  he  liked,  but  lived  only  on 


376  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

crumbs  and  remnants  of  other  people's  food. 
Two  spirits  appeared  to  him,  and  a  voice  told 
him  that  in  twenty-five  days  he  should  be  perfect. 
During  these  twenty-five  days,  he  saw  constant 
apparitions  and  heard  sweet  music,  and  was 
troubled  with  double  voices,  one  commanding 
one  thing,  the  other  the  exact  opposite.  A 
fly  flew  in  his  face  one  morning;  he  was 
persuaded  that  it  was  a  messenger  from  God, 
and  u  from  that  time  he  was  guided  by  flies  in 
many  things."  He  felt  himself  moved  to  pierce 
both  ends  of  a  needle  through  his  thumbs  and 
to  spread  his  hands  with  the  needle  in  them 
over  his  head,  thus  imitating  Christ  on  the  Cross. 
He  then  fell  as  if  dead,  and  lay  for  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour,  in  imitation  of  the  three 
days,  after  which  he  was  raised  to  his  feet  again 
and  enjoined  to  tell  his  Quaker  brethren  what 
had  happened  and  also  to  choose  apostles  from 
amongst  them.  A  certificate  is.  added  to  this 
narrative  containing  the  names  of  a  number  of 
people  who  were  fully  satisfied  of  the  truth  of 
the  things  reported. 

Of  James  Nayler,  one  of  the  most  zealous 
votaries  of  Quakerism,  various  occurrences  illus- 
trative of  religious  insanity  are  described.  One 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  377 

of  Nayler's  female  disciples,  named  Dorcas 
Erbury,  who  had  been  imprisoned  for  her  faith 
in  Essex  gaol,  averred  that  he  had  raised  her 
from  the  dead.  A  copy  of  her  depositions  was 
sent  by  the  magistrates  to  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  He  reported  it  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  examine 
into  the  question,  Nayler  himself  being  sent  for. 
Previously  to  this,  on  October  24th,  1656,  Nayler 
had  entered  Bristol  on  horseback,  accompanied 
by  one  Timothy  Wedlocke,  a  Quaker,  with  two 
women  leading  his  horse  and  crying  all  the  way 
uHoly!  Holy!  Holy!"  Nayler  was  examined 
in  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  Painted 
Chamber,  and,  in  answer  to  questions,  avowed 
that  he  was  a  prophet  of  the  Most  High  God, 
and  that  such  worship  was  due  to  him  as  repre- 
senting the  invisible  spirit  within  him  as  was 
given  to  Christ  at  Jerusalem.  The  House  ordered 
him  to  be  straightway  imprisoned  for  blasphemy. 
He  had  many  imprisonments,  was  flogged  from 
New  Palace  Yard  to  the  Old  Exchange,  and 
was  sent  afterwards  to  Bristol  to  endure  a  like 
punishment.  Whilst  he  was  being  flogged 
through  the  streets  of  Bristol,  his  disciples 
followed  him,  crying  u  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God !" 


378  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

In  September,  1559,  the  author  of  the  "Fana- 
tick  History"  says,  divers  witches  were  dis- 
covered at  a  meeting  of  Quakers  and  Anabaptists 
in  or  near  Sherborne,  in  Dorsetshire.  He  gives 
their  number  as  about  two  hundred.  Details 
of  this  affair  would  be  interesting,  but  are  not 
forthcoming.  Another  curious  feature  of  corre- 
spondence between  the  religious  aberrations  of 
Quakerism  and  Anabaptism  is  the  antic  of 
appearing  naked  in  public,  so  frequently  met 
with  in  cases  of  specially  enthusiastic  zealots  of 
either  sect.  Several  instances  of  this,  occurring 
alike  in  churches  and  public  assemblies  and  in 
the  streets  of  London,  are  recorded  of  persons 
of  both  sexes  alleged  to  belong  to  the  Quaker 
denomination  in  its  earlier  developments.  The 
circumstances  connected  with  these  incidents 
aptly  illustrate  the  notions  of  "  policing  "  prevail- 
ing in  the  seventeenth  century,  since  these 
good  people  seem  seldom  to  have  been  interfered 
with  at  the  time,  although  sometimes  they 
covered  long  distances  of  London-town  in  their 
nakedness,  whilst  if  they  were  afterwards  prose- 
cuted it  was  generally  for  blasphemy  or  unsound 
doctrine  rather  than  for  indecent  behaviour. 
It  should  be  mentioned  that  James  Nayler,  who 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENTIN  ENGLAND,  379 

died  in  1660,  wrote  a  reply  to  Blome  just  before 
his  death,  in  which  he  acknowledged  his  former 
errors. 

Leaving  the  Quakers,  it  is  of  importance  to 
note  the  traces  left  by  Anabaptism  on  the  two 
chief  monuments  of  the  religious  literature  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress"  and  uHoly  War."  No  one  reading 
the  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  side  by  side  with 
Tobias '  story  of  the  journey  of  Henry  Nicholas 
and  his  friends,  when  they  set  out  to  an  unknown 
destination,  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  idea 
that  Bunyan  had  read  Tobias '  book  or  that,  at 
any  rate,  they  lived  in  a  like  mental  atmosphere. 
We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  was 
any  correspondence  in  the  detail  of  the  story 
but  the  general  idea  of  the  pilgrimage  of  the 
aspiring  Christian  to  a  bourne  of  which  he 
knows  not  the  whereabouts,  his  trials  on  the 
way,  his  temptations,  his  growth  in  grace,  and 
so  forth — all  this  is  undoubtedly  there.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  memories  of  what  Bunyan  had 
read  or  heard  of  the  great  struggle  of  the  early 
sixteenth  century  in  Westphalia,  and  of  the 
wanderings  and  trials  of  the  Anabaptist  Saints 
in  their  efforts  to  reach  their  Holy  City 


380  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

of  Mlinster,  may  have  also  vaguely  floated 
before  his  mind.  We  know  that  during  the 

o 

seventeenth  century,  and  especially  about  the 
time  of  the'  Commonwealth,  the  story  of  the 
Mlinster  Anabaptists  was  well-known  and  cir- 
culated in  a  variety  of  versions  throughout  the 
country,  and  that  the  opponents  of  Familists, 
Baptists,  Quakers,  Fifth-Monarchy  men,  and 
such-like  sects,  were  never  tired  of  "  rubbing  in" 
the  moral  of  the  wickedness,  as  they  represented 
it,  of  Jan  of  Leyden  and  his  followers. 

It  is  significant  to  observe  that  Henry  D'An- 
vers,  in  his  "Treatise  on  Baptism,"  intimates 
his  belief  that  the  hatred  with  which  the  Miinster 
Anabaptists  were  assailed, — on  the  part  of  those 
writing  in  the  interests  of  authority,  of  course, — 
was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  they  preached 
and  practised  communism,  as  they  understood 
it.  From  this  cause,  he  persuades  himself, 
u  much  of  the  clamour  of  the  Miinster  business 
did  arise."  As  regards  Bunyan,  there  is  distinct 
evidence  in  his  second  great  work,  "  The  Holy 
War,"  that  he  not  merely  knew  of,  but  had 
even  carefully  studied,  the  story  of  the  siege 
of  Miinster.  It  would  take  too  long  here  to 
show  this  in  detail,  and  it  is  the  more  unne- 


THEANABAPT1STMO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  381 

cessary  inasmuch  as  it  has  been  done  with 
considerable  elaboration  by  Mr.  Richard  Heath 
in  the  u  Contemporary  Review,"  (vol.  72,  pp.  105- 
1 1 8).  Bunyan  himself  was  a  Baptist  of  the  eastern 
counties.  His  native  place,  Bedford,  was  not 
far  from  the  leading  strongholds  of  Anabaptism 
and  allied  movements.  We  cannot  fail  to  recog- 
nise that  in  him  and  presumably  his  co-religionists 
of  that  time  the  old  Anabaptist  tradition  was 
still  alive.  Unlike  Dissenters  of  a  later  date, 
whom  ignorance  of  history  and  economic  influ- 
ences had  detached  from  all  sympathy  with  the 
social  innovators  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  is 
clear  that  John  Bunyan  still  retained  his  rever- 
ence for  Jan  of  Leyden  and  his  fellow-martyrs 
in  the  Anabaptist  cause.  The  Miinsterites  were 
still  for  him  the  Saints  of  God,  who  were 
warring  against  the  powers  of  this  world  and 
of  Satan. 

As  regards  the  relation  of  the  Anabaptist 
movement  of  this  history  to  the  modern  Dissent- 
ing denomination  of  Baptists,  there  is  not  very 
much  to  be  said.  The  middle  classes  became 
economically  more  prosperous,  and  settled  down 
from  the  religious  and  political  perturbations  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  after  the  Revolution  that 


382  XISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

placed  William  of  Orange  on  the  throne.  The 
era  of  direct  persecution  for  religious  opinions 
had  passed,  and  the  new  circumstances  eco- 
nomic and  political  tended  towards  the  modera- 
tion of  "  respectability"  in  all  departments  of  life. 
Religious  zeal  sank  into  cold  formality,  and  the 
enthusiasm  for  political  and  social  renovation 
subsided  into  love  of  u  order  "  as  such,  whatever 
that  "  order"  might  be.  The  Quakers  themselves 
became  gradually  wealthy  and  ceased  to  be 
aggressively  propagandist.  They  held  their  meet- 
ings in  peace  and  quietness  like  other  bodies, 
and  suffered  from  little  worse  than  a  certain 
social  ostracism,  which  also  in  time  disappeared. 
They  became  noted  for  their  probity  in  business, 
thrift,  reliability,  and  other  virtues  especially  dear 
to  the  heart  of  the  rising  middle-class. 

It  was  so  also,  mutatis  mutandis,  with  the 
Baptists.  They  too  became  frugal,  sober  and 
industrious  small  middle-class  persons.  Religious 
and  political  enthusiasm  died  down.  Inconvenient 
tenets  and  views  of  life  were  either  dropped  alto- 
gether and  repudiated  or  were  allowed  to  fall  into 
the  background  and  become  "pious  opinions." 
As  the  matter  stands  with  the  later  history  of 
the  sect,  about  the  only  point  it  possesses  in 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MO  VEMENT  IN  ENGLAND.  383 

common  with  its  protagonist  and  ancestor,  the 
Anabaptism  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  is  the  theological  position  of  rejecting 
infant  baptism  and  practising  adult  baptism  as  a 
sign  of  admission  to  membership  of  its  Church. 
There  is  nothing  distinctive  in  any  other  respect  to 
differentiate  the  modern  Baptist  from  other  sects  of 
Protestant  "  orthodoxy  ".  With  the  disappearance 
of  the  name  Anabaptism,  the  thing  itself  went. 
The  old  fervour,  the  zeal,  the  self-confidence,  the 
idealism,  that  stopped  at  nothing  in  their  aim  to 
revolutionise  all  life  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
ception of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the 
disinherited,  have  long  ceased  to  exist  in  the 
Christian  sects  of  the  modern  world. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

CONCLUSION. 

IN  the  course  of  the  studies  just  terminated 
we  have  traced  the  main  lines  of  social  and 
political  thought  and  life  during  that  remarkable 
epoch,  now  nearly  four  centuries  behind  us, 
in  which  the  period  known  as  the  Middle 
Ages  was  slowly  but  surely,  (so  to  say,)  winding 
up  its  accounts  with  universal  history.  During 
the  first  half  of  the  i6th  century,  as  more  than 
once  remarked  in  the  course  of  these  pages, 
the  economic  and  political  conditions  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  although  rapidly  disintegrating, 
were  still  in  the  main,  outwardly  intact.  The 
undercurrent  of  change  which  was  breaking 
through  at  different  points  manifested  itself  under 
mediaeval  forms.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
intellectual  aspect  of  the  period  in  question.  The 
old  order  of  ideas  was  indeed  changing,  but  the 
new  ideas  of  the  time  that  took  the  place  of 
the  old  were  still  essentially  dominated  by  a 
mediaeval  habit  of  thought.  Thus  the  science 


CONCLUSION.  385 


of  the  age  was,  taken  as  a  whole,  little  more 
than  the  folk-lore,  and  ecclesiastical  conceptions 
of  the  Middle  Ages  systematised  under  a  new 
form.  It  is  true  that  through  this  mass  of  old 
notions  dressed-up  anew,  the  facts  and  methods 
of  modern  science  were  here  and  there  piercing. 
A  Paracelsus  amidst  his  abuse  of  the  old  medical 
theories  based  on  the  teaching  of  Galen  and 
Avicenna,  in  favour  of  his  own  equally  crude  and 
fantastic  system  founded  on  the  supposed  affin- 
ities of  things,  nevertheless  hit  upon  discoveries 
the  value  of  which  is  recognised  to-day.  Still 
more  a  Copernicus  who,  working  in  the  intellectual 
atmosphere  of  his  age,  must  have  been  unquestion- 
ably in  the  main  dominated  by  its  modes  of 
thought,  could,  notwithstanding  this,  lay  the  found- 
ation of  modern  astronomy.  But  in  judging 
of  the  age  we  must  never  forget  that  these 
things  were  exceptional,  and  that  the  newly 
awakened  intellectual  life  of  Christendom,  in 
the  bulk,  moved  along  the  old  lines  and  sought 
to  realise  its  dawning  aspirations  through  meth- 
ods dictated  by  these  old  ways  of  thought. 
Thus  its  freshly  awakened  interest  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  Nature  expressed  itself  in  the 
search  after  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  the  Elixir  of 

25 


3 86  K1SE  AXD  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS 
Life,  the  Transmutation  of  Metals  and  such  things. 

o 

The   chief  interest  in  the  study  of  the  heavens 
for  it  lay  in  the  calculation  of  nativities. 

Yet  there  are  some  among  the  seemingly  impos- 
sible ends  which  the  i6th  century  placed  before 
itself  as  the  main  objects  of  human  science  to 
achieve,  and  which  it  sought  to  realise  by 
magical  or  quasi-magical  means,  that  in  the 
light  of  recent  scientific  research,  no  longer 
seem  as  absurd  as  they  did  in  the  early  days 
of  modern  rationalism.  Communication  at  a  dis- 
tance through  other  than  the  ordinary  channels 
accessible  to  the  senses,  one  of  the  achievements 
ascribed  to  the  mystic  powers  of  the  learned 
alchemist  and  astrologer  Cornelius  Agrippa  of 
Nettesheim,  is  to-day  a  commonplace  of  the 
telephone  and  wireless  telegraphy.  Aerial  loco- 
motion, which  the  i6th  century  regarded  as  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  the  superior  magicians, 
the  Simon  Maguses,  of  the  world's  history,  is 
now  a  fact  only  awaiting  some  final  touches  to 
revolutionise  transit.  Even  the  Elixir  of  Life, 
impossible  as  it  seems  at  first  sight,  has  lost 
some  of  its  absurdity  in  the  light  of  theories 
based  on  recent  experiments  and  now  currently 
held  by  physiologists  of  repute.  In  short,  while 


CONCLUSION,  387 


of  the  objects  handed  down  to  it  from  tradition 
and  furbished  up  anew  by  the  freshly  awake- 
ned intelligence  of  the  Renaissance  period,  which 
the  wisdom  of  that  age  placed  before  itself  as 
the  goal  of  its  endeavours,  such  as  the  calcu- 
lation of  nativities  and  the  Philosopher's  Stone, 
some  may  have  disclosed  themselves  to  later 
ages  as  mere  absurdity,  there  are  many  other 
things,  at  that  time  believed  in  as  possible,  but 
rejected  as  equally  absurd  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
modern  science,  which  are  nevertheless  now  the 
realised  assets  of  later  invention  and  discovery. 
There  is  however  a  striking  difference. 
Though  some  of  the  objects  pursued  by  the 
votaries  of  the  pseudo-science  of  the  Renais- 
sance have  been  realised  by  modern  scientific 
discovery  and  invention,  they  have  been  reali- 
sed in  a  different  way  and  by  very  different 
means  to  those  alone  conceived  of  by  the  cos- 
mic speculator  of  the  i6th  century.  The  latter 
had  no  idea — in  accordance  with  the  pre- 
vailing theory  of  the  universe — of  achieving  his 
ends  otherwise  than  by  supernatural  agencies 
or  mysterious  and  occult  powers  akin  to  these, 
that  he  supposed  to  be  inherent  in  nature.  The 
methods  by  which  the  real  results  have  been 


388  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

attained  have,  of  course,  implied  a  complete 
revolution  in  our  conception  of  the  order  of  the 
universe. 

The  case  of  the  social  and  political  aspira- 
tions of  the  period  in  question  is  similar.  As 
already  pointed  out,  the  communistic  ideal  of 
the  religio-political  movements  of  the  Middle 
Ages  which  culminated  in  the  Anabaptist  revolt 
of  the  1 6th  century,  was  that  of  the  commu- 
nism of  the  economic  product,  and  was  inva- 
riably based  on  the  notion  of  a  return  to  the 
economic  conditions  of  the  old  village  commu- 

o 

nity — an  ideal  which  appealed  to  the  poor 
handicraftsman  and  peasant  especially  when 
smitten  by  the  stress  of  changing  circumstances. 
The  social  revolution  was  conceived  under  a 
theological  guise  as  the  u  Millennial  Kingdom," 
the  ''Restitution  of  All  Things,"  the  " Reign  of 
the  Saints,"  and  in  cognate  phrases.  It  was  a 
dispensation  of  the  Deity  to  be  initiated  in  the 
relations  of  believers  with  each  other,  and  the 
full  fruition  of  which,  the  "  Kingdom  of  God 
on  Earth,"  would  come  when  the  time  was  ripe, 
and  was  to  be  awaited  with  prayer  and  watch- 
ing. It  was  under  the  dominance  of  this  atti- 
tude of  mind  that  the  conviction  of  the  immi- 


CONCLUSION.  389 


nence  of  the  promised  millennial  reign  seized 
such  vast  numbers  of  the  poor  working-popu- 
lation of  Western  Europe  during  those  early 
years  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the  i6th  century. 
In  such  wise  did  the  disinherited  classes  of  that 
age  envisage  their  social  revindication.  Not  so 
does  the  proletariat  of  the  modern  Great  Indus- 
try look  for  its  emancipation.  The  aspirations, 
au  fond  legitimate  as  they  were,  of  the  mediae- 
val working  classes  of  the  i6th  century,  were 
historically  retrogade  in  their  form  both  as 
regards  the  end  conceived,  and  the  means  by 
which  it  was  believed  that  end  would  come  to 
pass — and  hence  they  were  foredoomed  to  failure. 
In  the  recognition  of  this  the  political  economy 
of  a  later  age  regarded  the  bare  notion  of 
social  and  economic  equality  as  a  Utopian 
absurdity,  much  as  the  physicist  of  the  dawning 
1 9th  century  would  have  regarded  immediate 
communication  at  a  distance,  or  the  reproduction 
of  the  voices  of  the  dead,  the  steering  of 
balloons,  and  such  marvels  of  modern  science. 
Nevertheless,  we  now  see  once  again  to  the 
fore  the  notion  of  a  social  regeneration  of 
society,  not  indeed  based  on  the  immediate 
communisation  of  the  economic  product,  as 

25* 


390  KISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANABAPTISTS. 

was   the    former,    (and    necessarily  so  owing  to 
the    then    prevailing   conditions   of  production) 
but   based   on  the  communisation  of  the  means 
of  production,   concentrated    as  they  are  to-day 
on  a  great  scale,  and  on  their  exploitation  for  the 
common  use  and  benefit.     Those  who  look  for- 
ward   to    a   higher   and   better   organisation  of 
society     in    our    time     no   longer   have   visions 
of  a  "  New  Jerusalem,"  of  a  divine  "  Millennial 
Kingdom"    brought   about   by  the  dispensation 
of  a  supernatural  Providence.    They  base  their 
hope   and  expectation,  not  on  the  vaticinations 
of  prophets    claiming  a  divine  mission,  but  on 
the  great  facts  of  historic  evolution  and  on  the 
analysis    of   the    material    basis    of  human   life 
to-day;    in    other   words,    on   the    conditions   of 
modern   capitalist   production.     Thus,   in   social 
as   in   physical   matters,  the  crude   fancies   and 
vaguely    thought-out    aims    of   an    earlier    age 
are  taken  up  again  by  modern  scientific  thought, 
and  while  the  old  beliefs  and  dreams  as  to  how, 
when,     and    where,     they     should    be    brought 
about,    have    been    long    set    aside     for   ever, 
modern    science    sees    another   way   opened  for 
their  realisation,  a  way  necessarily  undreamt  of 
four  centuries  ago.    The  goal  as  such,  is  indeed 


CONCLUSION.  391 


seen  to  be  attainable,  but  viewed  in  the  light 
of  modern  research,  and  after  an  intervening 
industrial  and  economic  evolution  traversing 
so  many  generations  it  looks  far  different 
from  what  it  did  as  regarded  through  the  mists 
of  mediaeval  and  renaissance  fancy.  Thomas 
Miinzer,  Jan  of  Ley  den,  Jan  Matthys,  and  the  rest 
of  those  who  sought  the  revindication  of  social 
justice  in  the  early  i6th  century,  have,  together 
with  their  aspirations,  passed  away  for  ever. 
But  foolish  as  their  ideas  seem  to  us  to-day, 
who  regard  the  problem  from  so  totally  diffe- 
rent a  standpoint,  let  us  not  forget  that  with 
all  their  follies  and  shortcomings,  they  were, 
in  a  sense,  the  forerunners  of  Modern  Socialism, 
and,  as  such,  let  us  spare  them  a  passing 
tribute  of  recognition! 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Aachen,  103. 

"Adamites,"  47,  250. 

Adultery  and  seduction,  edict  against,  203. 

Aegidi  gate  armoury,  149. 

Aldesloe,  328 

Amsterdam,  64,  103,  104,  in,  265,  266,  340,  349;  relief 
expeditions  from,  269,  270,  272. 

Anabaptists,  their  beginnings.  1—27;  doctrines,  28—65;  dress, 
48;  methods  of  greeting,  48,  49;  their  sufferings  and  per- 
secution, 66—94;  tendencies  of  the  movement,  161  —  171; 
hold  Miinster.  172—256;  successes  and  failures  outside 
Miinster,  257—281;  fall  of  Miinster,  282— 331;  the  movement 
in  England.  332—  383, 

Antwerp,  265. 

Apostles  sent  forth,  229. 

"Apostolic  Baptists,"  32,  34,  45. 

Appenzell,  21,  58,  60. 

Articles  of  theocratic  government  constitution,  199. 

Augsburg,  25,  91. 

"Augustin  Baptists,"  40. 


Baptism  by  immersion,  54. 
Baptism,  Treatise  on,  333,  380. 
Baptists  (Apostolic),  32,  34,  45. 

„        (Augustin),  40. 

„        (Holy  and  Sinless),  35. 

„        (Praying),  36. 


3Q6  INDEX. 


Baptists  (Separate  Spiritual),  34. 

Basel,  5—8,  327,  328. 

Bateman  (Stephen),  346. 

Batenburg  (Johannes),  326. 

"  Batenburgers,"  326. 

Beck  (J.  von),  quoted,  2 — 4. 

Beghards,  the,  no. 

Ber  (Hans),  the  peasant,  34. 

Bern,  21,  24,  64. 

Berndt  (Stuten),  134. 

Bible,  the,  9,  10,  14,  162,  164,  165. 

Bible-readings,  163. 

Bishop  von  Waldeck,  see  Waldeck. 

Blaurock  (Georg),  4,  17,  18,  20,  26;  his  death,  90. 

Blockhouses  proposed,  295. 

Blome  (Mr.  Richard),  quoted,  374,  379. 

Bockelson  (Jan),  see  Leyden,  Jan  of. 

Bockholt,  congress  at,  325,  326. 

"Bohemian  Brethren,"  33,  46. 

Bolswaert,  273. 

Bouterwek,  quoted,  265. 

Brabant,  265,  271. 

Bremen,  279. 

"Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,"  no. 

Bristol,  Quaker  eccentricities  at,  377. 

Brodli  (Hans),  6. 

"Brothers  and  Sisters  of  the  Spirit,"  33.  47,  250. 

Brunswick,  280. 

Brussels,  287,  294. 

Bullinger  (Heinrich),  quoted,  29—43,  358,  364,  372. 

Bumenin  (Frena),  60. 

Bunyan  (John),  368,  379—381. 

Burgundy,  286,  287. 

Butzer  (Martin),  68,  97. 


Campen,  269. 

Campen  (Johann  von),  278,  279. 

Cannibalism,  241. 


INDEX.  397 

Carte's  "History  of  England,"  quoted,  337. 

Cathedral  of  Miinster  sacked,  175. 

Chandler  (Thomas),  Familist,  356,  357. 

Charles  II,  sects  in  the  reign  of,  368. 

Chur,  24. 

Chur  (Georg  von),  4. 

Cleves,  286,  288,  323. 

Cleves  (Duke  of),  275,  287,  291,  294,  317. 

Coblenz,  215. 

Coesfeld,  154,  229.  279. 

Colchester,  360. 

Cologne,  see  Koln. 

Committees  of  public  safety  established,  133. 

Common  meals,  188—190,  200,  246,  247. 

„         garb,  200. 

Commonwealth,  sects  under  the,  368. 
Communism,   20,  40,   46,   93,    186 — 190,    245—248,   325,   362, 

365,  386. 

"Concilia"  (Wilkins),  quoted,  333,  335. 
Conference  of  Potentates,  288. 
"Confessions  of  Both  Sacraments,"  manifesto,  259. 
Conventional  historians,  320. 
Copernicus,  385. 

Cornelius,  quoted,  34,  50,  96,  97,  333,  335. 
Crinel  (Henry),  360,  361. 


D'Anvers  (Henry),  quoted,  333,  380. 

Denck   (Hans),   Schoolmaster  of  Niirnberg,  26,  51;  baptises 

Hut,  75,  91,  92,  98. 
Deserters  from  Miinster,  236. 
Deventer,  265,  269,  270,  298,  300. 
Dhaun  and  Falkenstein  (Count),  296. 
Divara,  widow  of  Jan  Matthys,  marries  Jan  of  Leyden,  210; 

becomes  Jan's  queen,  218. 
Divorces,  210. 

Documentary  Annals,  quoted,  359. 
"Dog's  peace,"  152. 


398  INDEX. 

Dortmund,  119,  297. 

Dukes  elected,  238. 

Dunbar,  the  Scotchwoman,  365. 

Dusentschur,  goldsmith,  222,  228,  229,  277,  279. 

E 

Eck  (Hans),  303— 307,  315. 

"Ecstatic  Brothers,"  36. 

Edict  of  Worms,  68. 

Edward  VI,  337,  361. 

"  Ehrbarkeit",  the,  14. 

Elders  of  Minister,  the,  200. 

Elisabeth  (Queen),  338. 

"Emanuel",  signature  to  an  appeal,  259. 

Emden,  103,  340,  349. 

England,  Anabaptists  in,  321,  327,  332. 

Enoch,  character  assumed  by  Matthys,  140,  157. 

Ensisheim,  7i- 

Erasmus,  265. 

Erbury  (Dorcas),  377. 

Erick  of  Osnabruck  (Bishop),  126. 

Essen,  297. 

" Essentialists  ",  365. 

Ethical  judgments  of  the  conventional  historian,  320. 

Evangelical  League,  131. 

"Evangelium  Regni",  348,  350,  359,  366. 

Executions  in  Minister,  201,  214. 


Familists,  see  Family  of  Love. 

Family   of  Love,    328 — 368;    depositions   by  two   members, 

354-358-.  marriage  customs,  356,  357. 
Family  of  the  Mount,  365. 
Famine  in  Minister,  230,  241. 

Fanaticism,  155,  156,  166,  193,  196,  266-268,  374—378. 
"Fanatick  History",  the,  374,  378. 
Feiken  (Hille),  a  would-be  Judith,  193;  beheaded,  194. 
Ferdinand  of  Austria  (Archduke),  24,  67,  80—83. 


INDEX.  399 

Fessler  (Hans),  57. 

Fifth-Monarchy  men,  380. 

Flanders,  271. 

Fox  (George),  371. 

Franck  (Sebastian),  quoted,  28,  29,  32,  42—47,  71,  85. 

"Free  Brothers",  37,  38. 

Free-lances,  execution  of,  183,  201. 

"Free-will  men",  362. 

Friesland,  103,  104,  154,  272,  273,  298. 


Geelen  (Jan  van),  271 — 273. 

Georg  (David),  or  Joris,  326—328,  345—348,  35 1»  353- 

Gilpin  (John),  375. 

"Glasse  of  Righteousness",  350,  366. 

Graess  (Johann),  299,  300. 

Granella  (Cardinal),  353. 

Graubtinden,  6,  21. 

Grebel  (Konrad),  4,  7,  8,  n,  16,  18,  20,  54,  55,  169. 

Gresbeck,  quoted,  177 — 190,  202,  215,  226,  233,  241. 

H 

Haarlem,  265. 

Hague  (the),  265. 

Hamburg,  154,  279. 

Hamm,  297. 

Hamm  (Meynart  von),  304. 

Hanover,  280. 

Hart  (Henry),  362. 

Hattinger  (Margaretha),  59. 

Hatzer  (Ludwig),  or  Hetzer,  6,  7,  26,  46,  51,  98. 

Heath  (Mr.  Richard),  quoted,  381. 

Hedian  (Kaspar),  97. 

Heling  (Augustin),  the  preacher,  40. 

Henrikus,  schoolmaster,  221. 

Henry  VIII,  332,  334— 336. 

Heresbach,  quoted,  317. 

Herford,  132. 


400  INDEX, 

Hesse,  286. 

Hesse  (Landgraf  of),  72,  73,  129—131,  287,  336. 

Hilversum  (Hendrik  van),  274. 

Hochmeister  (Dr.  Sebastian),  7,  24. 

Hoffmann  (Melchior),  100—114,  J6? — 171,  339-  372;  his  identity 

with  Melchior  Rink,  102,  103 ;  effect  of  his  arrest,  167 ;  his 

prophecies,  170. 

Holland,  104,  154,  265,  269,  271,  288. 
"Holy  and  Sinless  Baptists",  35. 
"Holy  War",  Bunyan's,  379,  380. 
Hoya  (Count  Erich  von),  132. 
Hubmeyer  (Balthasar),  4,   7,   20,   22,  24,  25,  34.  76.  77;  his 

arrest,  torture,  and  death,  78—80;  execution  of  his  wife,  80. 
Hut  (Hans),   26,  46,  47;  his  death,  73;  career  and  character, 

73-77- 

Huter  (Jacob),  86—89. 
"Hutian  Brothers",  39. 


"I.  R.",  see  Rogers,  John. 

Infant  Baptism,  13,  14,  17,  22,  137,  373,  383. 


Jacobi  Church,  306. 

James  I,  petition  to.  358. 

Jan  of  Leyden,  see  Leyden. 

Joan  of  Kent,  357. 

"John  of  Bridges",  name  taken  by  David  Georg,  346. 

Joris,  see  Georg. 

Julich,  135,  274,  323. 

K 

Kapitan  (Wolfgang),  97,  99,  134. 

Kaunitz  (von),  the  brothers,  85. 

Kautsky  (Herr  Karl),  quoted,  203,  234. 

Keller  (Dr.  Ludwig),  quoted,  102,  119,  134,  220,  259,  280,  281,313. 

Kemp  (John),  362. 


INDEX.  401 


Kerssenbroick,  quoted,  115,  173,  318. 

Kessler  (Johannes),  quoted,  53—63,  266,  371. 

Kibbenbroick,  160,  178,  179. 

Kirschmeyer,  quoted,  71. 

Klara,  daughter  of  Knipperdolinck,  145,  210. 

Knewstubs  (J.),  364. 

Knipperdollinck,  124,  145,  147,  150.  153,  178,  179,  198,  199, 
346;  his  arrest,  150;  Bin-germeister,  160,  178,  179;  becomes 
Jan's  henchman,  198;  magistrate  of  theocratic  government, 
199;  acts  as  executioner,  209;  vice-steward,  216;  court-fool, 
224;  claims  the  kingship,  225 ;  is  arrested,  226;  reconciled  with 
Jan,  227;  flight  and  capture,  312,  313,  315;  his  fate,  318,  319. 

Koln,  276,  286,  288. 

Koln  (Archbishop  of),  118,  236,  275,  276,  287. 

Krechting  (Bernhardj,  154,  206;  his  capture,  309,  312,  315; 
his  fate,  318,  319. 

Krechting  (Heinrich),  154,  198;  chancellor  of  the  new  govern- 
ment, 200,  201;  escapes,  312. 


Lamberti  Kirche,  see  St.  Lamberti,  Church  of. 

Landtag  at  Telgte,  292. 

Langen  (Rudolf  von),  176. 

Langen  Straten  (Johann  Eck  von  der),  see  Eck. 

Latimer  (Bishop),  337,  361. 

Leuwarde,  274. 

Leyden,  265,  270,  271. 

Leyden  (Jan  of),  otherwise  Jan  Bockelson,  102,  114 — 116, 
144—146,  179—183,  216,  289,  307,  308,  312,  339,  346;  parent- 
age, 114;  becomes  leader  of  the  movement,  191 ;  his  character, 
197;  his  wives,  210,  271;  made  king,  214.  his  fate,  315,324. 

"Libertines",  the,  365. 

Lichtenstein  (Leonhard  and  Hans  von),  82,  84,  85. 

Liege.  103.  274. 

Linz,  persecutions  in,  72. 

Lippstadt,  132. 

Lower  Rhine,  291,  300 

Lower  Saxony,  291. 


402  INDEX. 

Liibeck,  154,  279—281,  313,  314. 

Liineburg,  279. 

Luther,  3,  9,  135,  192,  265,  332,  333,  351. 

M 

Maarbeck  (Pilgram),  87,  99. 

Maastricht,  103,  274. 

Magdeburg,  280. 

Manz  (Felix),  4,  8,  16,  18,  20,  21,  24;  his  execution,  73. 

Marcellus  (Gerhardt),  313. 

Margaret,  sister  of  Dusentschur,  322. 

Marriage-laws,  205,  249  et  seq. 

Massacre  in  Minister,  310,  311. 

Matthys  (Jan),  112—116,  139,  157,  190;  killed  by  free-lances, 
191;  personal  appearance,  191;  character,  192 — 194. 

Meals  in  common,  188. 

Meerfeld  (Provost  Theodor  von),  193. 

Melancthon,  117,  135. 

Mennonites,  326-329. 

Minden,  132. 

"Mirabilia  opera  Dei",  339. 

Modersohn  (Margaretha),  one  of  Jan  of  Leyden's  wives,  210. 

Mollenbecke  (Heinrich),  ex-alderman,  207 — 209. 

Moravians,  329. 

Miiller  (Magdalena),  59. 

Minister,  117—131;  its  Bishop,  118;  Anabaptists  in  power, 
172 — 256;  cathedral  sacked,  175,  176;  church-bells,  melted, 
200;  polygamy  introduced,  203,  210;  executions,  209,  243, 
244;  siege  raised,  211;  its  fall,  282  et  seq.\  three  days' 
cannonade,  289;  famine,  301,  302;  keys  of  the  gates  stolen, 
309;  besieging  forces  storm  the  market-place,  309;  Bishop's 
official  entry,  314;  trial  court  established,  315. 

Miinzer  (Thomas),  2,  n. 

Mystery-plays  of  Anabaptists,  232. 

Mysticism,  i. 

N 

Nassau  (Count  Wilhelm  of),  228. 
Nayler,  the  Quaker,  376 — 378. 


INDEX.  403 


Netherlands  (the),  103,  265,  297,  329. 

Neuss,  288. 

Nicholas  (Henry),  327,  338-343,  345,  34^,  348-354,  359~ 366. 

Nicholas  (John),  349. 

Nicolsburg,  in  Moravia,  25,  76,  82—84. 

Norwich  (Bishop  of),  366,  367. 

Nuns,  adhesion  of,  157. 

Niirnberg,  26. 


Obbe-Phillips,  325. 
Obbenites,  325. 


Oecolampadius,  92. 
"  Ordinance  of  God  ",  106. 
Osnabruck,  229,  264,  279,  298. 
Osnabruck  (Jakob  von),  258. 


Pageants,  234. 

Pamphlets  and  broadsheets,  138,  253,  260—264. 

Paracelsus,  385. 

"Paterines",  33. 

Peasants   War,    i — 7;   connection   of  Anabaptists   with,   330, 

33 i >  333, 

''Pilgrim's  Progress",  Bunyan's,  379. 
Polygamy  introduced  into  Minister,  203  —206,  254,  323. 
"Praying  Baptists",  36. 
Preachers,  decree  for  their  expulsion,  146. 
Prinzipalmarkt  of  Minister,  214,  218,  221,  222,  225. 
Prostitution  not  tolerated,  203. 
Protestant  League  of  German  Princes,  336. 

Q 

Quakers,  45,  368,  371—380. 


404  IXDEX. 

R 

Randal,  the  preacher,  367. 

Ranters,  the,  368—371. 

"Ranters  Ranting"  (the),  368—370. 

Re-baptism,  2,  18,  22—24,  32>  47- 

Redecker,  master-goldsmith,  208. 

Reichstag  of  Speyer,  98. 

Renaming  of  streets,-  232. 

"Restitution",  pamphlet,  260. 

"Restoration  (Book  of)",  351. 

"Restorator  Omnium",  title  assumed  by  Henry  Nicholas,  351. 

Reublin  (Wilhelm),  5—7,  17,  20,  86,  87,  99. 

Rhegius  (Urbanus),  264,  265. 

Rhine  districts,  104,  291. 

Rink  (Melchior),  see  Hoffmann,  102. 

Rogers  (John),  344-358. 

Roichel  (Johann),  308,  309. 

Roland  (Fabrizius),  quoted,  313. 

Roll  (Heinrich),  135—145,  258,  274. 

Rostock,  279. 

Rothmann  (Bernhard),  120—124,  134 — 139,  141,  142,  145,  258; 
his  printing-press,  138;  his  circular  letter,  153 ;  on  communism, 
187;  becomes  Jan's  henchman,  198;  advocates  polygamy, 
205;  royal  orator  and  steward,  216-,  his  pamphlet  on  marriage, 
253;  his  manifesto,  259;  his  pamphlets,  260—264;  doubtful 
fate,  313,  314. 

Rothstock,  314. 

Rotterdam,  265. 

Riischer,  a  smith,  182,  183. 

S 

"Sabbata",  Kessler's,  quoted,  53—63. 

Sabbath-day  rejected  by  the  Familists,  357. 

Sacramentaries,  334. 

St.  Gallen,  21—24,  53-57,  266,  371. 

St  Lamberti,  Church  of,   123,   137,   141,  150,   153,   158,   181, 

231— 233,  3i3»  3i9- 
St.  Mauritz,  Church  of,  120,  176. 
Salzburg,  69—71. 


INDEX.  405 


Saltier  (Michel),  73. 

Saxony  (Elector  Johann  Friedrich  of),  278. 

Saxony,  Lower,  291. 

Schaffhausen,  7,  20,  24,  54. 

Schenk  (Joris),  273. 

Schmalkalden,  Evangelical  League  of,  131. 

Schroeder  (Johann),  the  smith,  141—143. 

Schugger  (Thomas),  61. 

Schwering  (Peter),  154. 

Science  in  the  i6th  Century,  384—388. 

Sects,  peculiar  English,  358,  359. 

Sell  (Matthias),  97. 

"  Separate  Spiritual  Baptists  ",  34. 

Servet  (Michael),  41. 

Servetius,  Church  of.  138. 

Sherborne  witches.  378. 

Shoemakers-alley,  Ranters  in,  369. 

Siewerts  (Jan).  266. 

''Silent  Brothers",  55,  45. 

Simon  (Menno),  325 — 329. 

Snyder  (Dirk),  266,  267. 

Social  ideals  then  and  now.  388—391. 

Soest,  133.  229,  276—278. 

Spain,  286. 

Spiegel-thurm,  the  Mirror-tower  of  Miinster  Cathedral,  148. 

"Spirituals",  8,  13.  16,  17. 

Staprade.  assistant  preacher  at  the  church  of  St.  Lamberti,  137. 

Steding,  307,  308,  314. 

Stilze  (Andreas  aut  der),  the  bookseller.  7. 

Storch  (Nicholas),  the  so-called  Zwickau  prophet,  2. 

Strasburg,  26,  64.  97—110. 

Strype's  Annals,  quoted*  360,  361^365 — 367. 

Stumpf  (Simon),  6,  7,  15,  16. 

Stute,  a  kind  of  flat  cake,  134. 

"Stuten  Berndt",  Rothmann's  sobriquet.  134. 

"Sum  of  Scripture",  332. 

Sumptuary  ordinance,  222. 

Supernaturalism,  164,  165. 

Swabian  League,  90. 

Sweating  sickness.  118. 


406  INDEX. 


Taborites,  46. 

Tasch  (Peter),  336. 

Telgte,  130,  292. 

Theocratic  constitution  and  government,  198,  199. 

Thurgau,  6. 

Tithes  abolished,  12. 

Tobias,  the  elder,  339—344,  379. 

Tolderry  (John),  375. 

Tongern  (Heinrich  von),  258,  274. 

Travesties  acted  by  the  Anabaptists.  158.  159,  229. 

"  Treatise  of  Baptism  ",  D'Anvers',  333,  380. 

Trinity  dogma  denied  by  Familists,  357. 

Tylbeck,  the  Kiirgermeister,  151,  152,  156.  157.  159,  160.  199. 

208,  216,  218,  311. 
Tyrol,  26,  71,  87—90. 


U 


Upper  Rhine,  26,  291. 
Utrecht,  269,  298. 


Vadianus,  name  taken  by  Joachim  von  Watt.  23. 

"Vengeance  (Little  Book  of)",  263,  297. 

Vienna,  64. 

Visions,  180,  230. 

Vitell.  (Christopher),  346,  348,  354,  359,  362.  366. 

Vogel  (Wolfgang),  chief  proselyte  of  Hans  Hut.  75. 

Volkert  (Johann),  103. 

W 

Waldeck  (Count  Franz  von),  Miinster's  I'rinre-Uishop,  127  —  131, 

282  ct  scq.;  woman's  plan  for  his  assassination.  193,  194. 
Waldshut,  7,  20,  22,  24,  25. 
Warendorf,  222,  229,  276,  293. 
Warham,  Archbishop,  332. 


INDEX.  407 

"  Wassenberg",  alias  of  Heinrich  Roll.  135. 

"  Wassenberger  ",  the.  135,  139. 

Watt  (Joachim  von).  23. 

Wedlocke  (Timothy).  377. 

Wesel,  274. 

Westphalia,  322—324. 

Whitechapel,  Ranters  in.  369. 

AVieck  (Van  der),  syndicus  of  Miinster,  136.  159.  293. 

AVilkin's  "Concilia"',  quoted.  333.  335. 

Wilkinson  (William).  364. 

Willingham.  361. 

Wilmsen  (Johann),  322,  323. 

Wismar.  279. 

Wolimann  (Wolfgang),  53—55. 

Women,  part  played  by.  146.  i55?  196,  247,  309;  imprisoned 

for  quarrelsome  behaviour,  210. 
"  Wonder-book  ".  the.  347. 
Wiirtemberg,  5. 


Zillis.  a  captured  emissary  from  Miinster,  297. 

Zollikon,  near  Ziirich,  6.  57,  59. 

Zurich,  4—14.  55-  57-  58- 

Zwickau  prophets.  2. 

Zwingli,  5,  7-9.  12-17.  19-24. 

Zwolle.  269.  298. 


44338 


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